A Blast from the Past: Number 63, DE, Lee Roy Selmon.

Football has many great players throughout time. However, not every great player gets selected to take his place in Canton, Ohio in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. If you ever visited the Hall of Fame, you would see great players such as: Jim Thorpe, Jim Brown, Bart Star, Johnny Unitas, Walter Payton, Tony Dorsett, and Joe Montana.

You would learn that teams like the Arizona Cardinals has 10 Hall of Famers, the Chicago Bears have 26 players, Cleveland Browns and Washington Redskins both with 15, Green Bay Pakers 21, New York Giants 18, Steelers have 17, while the Colts and Rams both have 13 each. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have one actual Hall of Famer and he is none other the defensive end, number 63, Lee Roy Selmon.

As promised here is "A Blast from the Past". This is my way to pay tribute to the great Buccaneer players of the past. Some of these players are in our hearts as Buccaneer fans, but will never be honored any other way. This week I picked Lee Roy Selmon, Defensive End for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In 1954, Lee Roy Selmon was born to Lucious and Jessie Selmon in Eufaula, Oklahoma; the youngest of nine children.

In 1974-1975 Lee Roy Selmon was a 3 Time All-American at University of Oklahoma. Lee Roy and his brother Dewey Selmon helped the Sooners win back-to-back championship titles All Big Eight Conference Team

"He's a franchise. You know, it's easy to hand out
the word great and all the other superlatives, but if those words ever fit a
ballplayer they have to fit Lee Roy. I know that there have been some players
like him in the country. I'm sure that Mean Joe Green and Alan Page and those
people must be that kind of football player. But I've never ever had anything
like Lee Roy."
- Larry Lacewell, former Sooner defensive coordinator.

Lee Roy Selmon was drafted in 1976 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the number one pick overall of the 1976 NFL draft. First-ever draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Lee Roy Selmon played on the sorriest team in the NFL during this time, but in 1979, he was the Key member of NFC Central Division Champs and selected as the NFL Defensive Lineman of the Year, he was also selected All-Pro that year.

1980Selected All-Pro

1980 Buccaneer (Miller Brewing Company) Man of the Year

1980 Kiwanis Citizen of the Year (District 8 - Florida West Coast)

1981 Key member of NFC Central Division Champs, Named NFL Defensive Player of the Year

1982 Selected All-Pro

1982-83 "Service to Mankind" Award by the Hillsboro Sertoma Club

1983 Selected to play in Pro Bowl - NFC TeamSelected All-Pro, All-NFC

1986 Retires from professional football.Career stats: 78 1/2 sacks, 380 quarterback pressures, forced 28 1/2 fumbles, recovered 10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers all-time leader in starts (118), #63 jersey only one retired by the Buccaneers.

1988 Inducted College Football Hall of Fame

1993Joined University of South Florida (USF) as Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs; spearheading effort to commence intercollegiate football

1994 Inducted into the GTE Academic All-America Hall of Fame

1995 Inducted into NFL Hall of Fame; the first former Sooner and the only Tampa Bay Buccaneer to date

"I had the opportunity to speak to the Hall of
Famers who preceded me like Otto Graham, Gene Upshaw and Gale Sayers...we spoke
of what it all means to join the Hall and it goes far beyond what's on the
football field. It goes and stretches right into life. And how you can use it to
reach out to help others. That's the true meaning of the Pro Football Hall of
Fame."

- Lee Roy Selmon


Lee Roy Selmon played for the Buccaneers from 1976-1985. He retired in 1985 as a Buc.Lee Roy Selmon was selected by the Pewter Report as the number 1st greatest Buc of all time, and shares that title with Derrick Brooks.


Lee Roy Selmon was named as the 2nd Greatest Buccaneer Player of all-time by BUCPOWER.COM in 2003.

Lee Roy Selmon’s jersey is the only Jersey that has ever been retired by the Bucs. No one will ever where number 63 again.