Colin Ridgway
| Date of birth: | February 19, 1937 |
|---|---|
| Place of birth: | Melbourne, Australia |
| Date of death: | 13 May 1993 (aged 56) |
Career information | |
| Position(s): | Punter |
| College: | Lamar University |
Organizations | |
| As player: | |
| 1965 | Dallas Cowboys |
Career stats | |
| Playing stats at NFL.com | |
Colin Edwin Ridgway (February 19, 1937 – May 13, 1993) was an American football punter distinguished as being the first Australian to play in the National Football League.
Athletic career
Track and Field
Ridgway was a high jumper who competed at the 1956 Olympic Games and 1958 Commonwealth Games for Australia. He had also competed in the Australian Open Track and Field Championships from 1955/56 to 1959/60. Ridgway failed to make the 1960 Australian Olympic team and so accepted an offer of a track and field scholarship to Lamar Tech (now Lamar University), before joining the Dallas Cowboys. In 1961 he became the first Commonwealth athlete to clear 7 foot in the high jump.
VFL career
Ridgway began his sporting career playing Australian rules football. He reached the VFL reserves level, playing for the Carlton Football Club in the 1960s.
NFL career
Ridgway attended Lamar University in Texas, where the Dallas Cowboys discovered him and signed him to their 1965 team. He participated a total of three games as a punter, making him the first Australian to play in the NFL. It turned out that the running drop-kicks that were commonly used at that time in Aussie Rules did not translate well into the American game. Ridgway stayed in Dallas after his football career and became a successful businessman.
Murder
Colin Ridgway was murdered at his University Park, Texas home in 1993. To date, no arrests have been made and the case remains open.[1]
A man publicly suspected by authorities as a killer-for-hire in Ridgway's murder was convicted Sept. 4, 2014, in Florida of a separate violent crime that happened the year before the murder. Kenneth Alfred Bicking III was found guilty of armed sexual battery and kidnapping with a weapon, according to the Florida State Attorney's office. The maximum sentence is life in prison. Prosecutors said Bicking entered the victim's home in April 1992 without her permission, showed a gun, tied her up and put tape over her eyes and mouth before sexually assaulting her. Bicking was charged after new DNA technology was used in a follow-up investigation in 2011. Police in Dallas had theorized that Bicking had been hired by his father and Ridgway's widow to carry out the 1993 killing.[2]