Select a player to view its full bio from the list of options below.
Related Bios
William Childress

William Childress

  • Class Year:
    1940
  • Induction Year:
    1981
  • Sport(s):
    Football

William Childress '40 graduated from BW in 1940 and was inducted into the Alumni Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1981.

The late Ray E. Watts, who saw some fine gridiron talent during his coaching years, called Bill Childress one of the greatest football players he ever coached.  It was written of the quick, strong guard that he spent many a football game "as an unwanted member of the backfield squad of his opponent messing up play after play."

In 1939 Bill was honorary captain of the All-Ohio Conference Team and a member of the All-Ohio Team.  Football fans elected him to the Midwest All-Star Team which played an exhibition game with the Cleveland Rams, the fore-runners of the Cleveland Browns.  He joined players from such universities as Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue and Michigan State.  He topped his year by receiving what was then the College's most prestigious recognition for football, the Paul E. Baur Award, to the team's most valuable player.

Bill's football prowess led to several high school coaching offers but he chose to pursue a career in dentistry.  He received his DDS from Howard University in 1944 and after a three-year stint in the Army as a lieutenant, opened a practice in Youngstown.  He later moved to Mansfield where he continued private practice and also became a church and civic leader including past presidencies of the city's NAACP and VFW chapters.

Widowed in 1947, the Hall of Famer inductee raised a son, Roy, and a daughter, Camille, and now has two grandchildren.  He married Freda Frantz in 1972.