Who is Rickey Dixon Wiki, Biography, Age, Net Worth, Net Worth, Instagram, Hidden Facts You Need to Know
Rickey Dixon Wiki – Rickey Dixon Biography
Rickey Dixon was an American football player. A cornerback and special teams player, he played for the Oklahoma Sooners and later the National Football League’s died Saturday, the school announced.
Rickey Dixon Short Biography
Who was Rickey Dixon?
College Football Hall Hall and Oklahoma legend Rickey Dixon recalled as the “Game of the Century” star between OU and Nebraska in 1987, the school announced it died Saturday.
Dixon was 53 years old. In 2013, Lou Gehrig Disease, also known as ALS, was diagnosed.
Dixon came to Oklahoma as the skinny 5 foot 11 corner where coach Barry Switzer told him to eat two Big Macs a day. In 1987, he was the first Sooner to win the Jim Thorpe Award for the All-American consensus and the best defensive comeback of college football. In 1986 and ’87, All-Big Eight was appointed to the first team as a junior and senior.
Oklahoma and the National Football Foundation honor Dixon in the first half of Sooners’ season opener against Houston in 2019. Dixon, who was on the ventilator and had to communicate with his eyes, went to Norman from Texas’s home in DeSoto and play at Switzer’s home.
He was officially put on the College Football Hall of Fame last December, Sooners’ first full-time defense to win honors.
On Saturday, Switzer remembered Dixon as “one of the biggest actors” in Sooners’ history and said that Dixon died in the house surrounded by his family.
College football career
A standout defensive back at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas, Dixon came to Norman to play for the Sooners in 1984. He played in 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988 Orange Bowls, in two National Championship games, and was a key figure in Oklahoma’s 1985 National Championship win over Penn State in the 1986 Orange Bowl.
A consensus All-American in 1987, Dixon was the first Sooner to win the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the top defensive back in the country. He shared the Award with Miami’s Bennie Blades. He won all-conference honors in 1986 and 1987.
The defining game of Dixon’s collegiate career was the 1987 contest against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Hyped as the “Game of the Century II”, playing on the moniker given to the 1971 contest between Oklahoma and Nebraska, Nebraska was favored at home in Lincoln, boasting the #1 offense in the country.
The Sooners came in ranked #2 in the nation and sporting the #1 defense in the country. Nebraska quarterback Steve Taylor came into the game boasting that the Sooners could not compete against the Cornhuskers. It was Dixon’s two interceptions of Taylor in the game (one to set up a short touchdown drive, and one late in the fourth quarter to seal the win) that put the Cornhuskers away and guaranteed Oklahoma a shot at the Miami Hurricanes in the 1988 Orange Bowl. In the Orange Bowl, Dixon had another key interception to set up a Sooner touchdown drive in a game that Miami eventually won, 20-14.
Dixon finished his career with 170 total tackles and 17 interceptions (second only to Darrell Royal for the school record). During his senior year, he had nine interceptions for 232 yards which remain school records for the Sooners.
Rickey Dixon Oklahoma Achievements
Dixon still broke Oklahoma records in a season of nine. 17 career interventions were shy of Darrell Royal’s school enrollment, and Dixon’s 303 intervention return race also ranked second from 397 of OU record holder Derrick Strait.
Two of Dixon’s most memorable interventions came in 1987 in Oklahoma’s 17-7 win against No. 1 Nebraska in Lincoln, where Huskers coach Tom Osborne said he might have been the most disappointing loss in his career.
Dixon was ranked number 5 overall in 1988 and played six NFL seasons for Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Raiders. He owned a landscape company, became a motivational speaker for teens at risk, and coached high school football in Texas prior to ALS diagnosis.
In 2014, a year after the ALS diagnosis, Dixon earned $ 4.5 million in a settlement after a case brought by thousands of former players who claimed to hide the dangers of jolts in the league.
“Stuck to a useless body,” his wife Lorraine Dixon told ESPN in 2017.
In Dixon’s four years at OU, Sooners merged with 42-5-1 (.885) with four Orange Bowl skins. The 1985 team defeated 25-10 Penn State to win the national championship.
“Since leaving OU, Rickey has been considered one of the best footballers in school history,” said OU athletic director Joe Castiglione, and his entry into the College Football Hall of Fame last year is definitely confirmed. However, like any of his achievements in the field, he must be remembered for his extreme courage and spirit of perseverance. Overcoming the daily physical struggles he has faced in the past few years is evidence of his determination,
determination and warrior. his mentality, as well as the closest to those who give him very loving support … When we think of Rickey, we will tell him everything he achieved during and after his play career, and we wish his wife Lorraine and her children the most sincere condolences. “The entire Dixon family.”
