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'Robert Lewis Lilly' (born July 26, 1939) is a former American football player in the NFL and photographer.
Born in Throckmorton, Texas, Lilly originally made a name for himself as an All-American football player at Texas Christian University and star defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys from 1961 to 1974.

Contents

College Football career

Professional Football career

Photography

Additional Notes

External links

College Football career

A two-time All-Southwest Conference pick and a consensus All-American while at TCU. 2006 inductee to the East-West Shrine Game Hall of Fame.

Professional Football career

As a first-round draft pick in 1961 (and the Cowboys first ever draft pick), Bob went on to be All-Pro 7 times, and played in 11 Pro Bowl games.
Lilly began his career as a defensive end in 1961 but midway though his third season Cowboys coach Tom Landry moved him to defensive tackle. As a tackle, Lilly was a first-team All-NFL choice every year from 1964 through 1969, then again in 1971. The only years he missed first-team honors was his final two seasons in the league and in 1970 when he was a second-team choice. In 1972 he and the rest of the Cowboys won the Super Bowl against Miami, 24-3. His 29-yard sack of Dolphin quarterback Bob Griese is one of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl lore.
Lilly's greatest assets were his furious pass-rushing skills and his ability to slice plays open with his agility and instincts. Lilly's agility and quickness helped him score four defensive touchdowns in his career. His first was returning an interception 17 yards in 1964 while the other three came on fumble recoveries.
Lilly was extremely durable during his career, making 196 consecutive regular-season games. The only game he would miss in his career was the 1973 championship game against Minnesota due to a leg injury.
Affectionately known as "Mr. Cowboy," his name was the first inscribed in the "Ring of Honor" above Texas Stadium.
Bob Lilly was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980. The ''Sporting News'' named him a member of the All-Century NFL Team and "the greatest defensive tackle in NFL history".
In 1999, he was ranked number 10 on ''The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranking defensive lineman and the highest-ranking Cowboy.

Photography

When he began traveling with the Cowboys, Lilly took his camera with him wherever he went. His interest in photography began when he was named to the Kodak All-America team in 1961 as as part of the honor was given a 35MM camera and a year's supply of film by the company [1]. Before and after games, he spent an increasing amount of time studying and photographing old sports stadiums. Bob co-authored a book called "Reflections" with sportswriter Sam Blair that featured scores of his black and white photgraphs of teammates in candid poses.
When he was not busy wreaking havoc in the opposing team's backfield, Lilly was learning to appreciate the subtler lines of architectural forms and the interesting ways light and shadow played across them. He began to notice the more abstract effects of composition, paying greater attention to unique angles of certain structures, or the juxtaposition of one building with another. It was also during this time that Lilly began to focus on nostalgic themes, such as old street lanterns, closed fueling stations and railway yards.
After retiring from the NFL and moving to Waco, Texas, Lilly’s photographic interests broadened to include other natural settings—particularly those cast in the light of a rising or setting sun. He was quickly drawn to scenes that recalled his childhood in Throckmorton, Texas. Rural themes such as old paint-chipped barns and churches, or windmills creaking in a sea of golden grass, appear consistently throughout Lilly’s work. Remembering family fishing trips to Pagosa Springs and Durango, Colorado in his early teenage years, Lilly began taking photographs of the mountains of this region—capturing mineshafts iced in snow, preserved alongside trout-filled, babbling streams.
Lilly’s work was featured as a cover story in the June 2004 issue of ''Petersen’s Photographic''. Some of his newer projects include a multicolored geyser near Hind’s Peak and the Saguaro cacti of Arizona. Other notable photos are his Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, UT, and White Sands, White Sands National Monument, NM. Those and other works are sold by his Texas studio and via the internet [2] [3].

Additional Notes

★ Bob Lilly was the first draft pick in Cowboys franchise history.

★ Lilly missed just one NFL game during his 14 year career

★ Has been at the induction of each ring of honor inductee

★ He was the first player who spent his entire career with the Cowboys to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame

★ He starred in a number of television commercials for hardware stores and products.

External links

★ ''Pro Football Hall of Fame:'' Member profile

★ Bob Lilly homepage

★ NFL.com article about Lilly's career

★ Football Reference: Bob Lilly

★ A list of Bob Lilly Quotes

★ Football cards