Lee Roy Selmon

By Brad Berreman
Love of Sports Correspondent

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made their first playoff appearance in franchise history in 1979, their fourth year in existence, and made it all the way to the NFC Championship before losing to the Los Angeles Rams.

The team’s run was even more impressive when you consider they had a mere 5-11 record the year before.

Leading that defense, which was amongst the league’s best, was defensive end Lee Roy Selmon.

Selmon had 11 sacks and 117 total tackles that season on his way to becoming the 1979 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Selmon came to the Bucs in 1976 out of the University of Oklahoma as the franchise’s first draft pick (No. 1 overall) after he won both the Lombardi Award and Outland Trophy during his senior year.

In 1974, he had 18 sacks for the Sooners and was elected consensus All-American in both ‘74 and ’75. Selmon was elected to the Pro Bowl six times (1979-84) and was named to the NFL All-Decade Team for the ‘80s. Even more impressive in this age of free agency and mega-contracts, was that Selmon played his entire career for the Buccaneers, retiring after missing the entire ‘85 season due to a back injury.

His career total of 78.5 sacks is still a franchise record.

Tampa Bay retired Selmon’s #63 in 1986, the only number the franchise has retired to this point. He was voted the greatest player in Tampa Bay history in 2007.

He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995 and is a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame as well.

Lee Roy served as assistant athletic director at the University of South Florida from 1993-01 before taking over as the school’s athletic director. His biggest accomplishment there was launching the football program and helping to spearhead the construction of a new athletic facility. He also oversaw the team’s move to Conference USA and then to the Big East Conference (where they currently play).

Selmon resigned from his post as AD at USF in 2004 and assumed the role as president of the school’s Foundation Partnership for Athletics, an athletics fund-raising organization. He also owns a chain of restaurants in Florida that bear his name.

In recognition of an under appreciated defensive lineman whose career was too short, but who continues to make an impact on the game of football, here’s some Old School Love to Lee Roy Selmon!