Remembering Tony Green: All-SWC Tech safety dies at 70

The Southwest Conference in 1975 was stacked with star defensive backs. Lester Hayes and Pat Thomas from Texas A&M and Raymond Clayborn from Texas all went on to lengthy NFL careers with multiple Pro Bowl appearances. Curtis Jordan from Texas Tech played 11 NFL seasons and earned a Super Bowl ring.

Playing alongside Jordan in the Red Raiders' secondary was fellow safety Tony Green, who excelled in his own right.

Former Tech fullback Cliff Hoskins said he would put the Jordan/Green tandem up with any safety pairing in the nation in the mid-1970s.

"Tony played strong safety and Curtis was free (safety), and you didn't get much off of either one of them," Hoskins said. "It was a real tribute, I think, to Tony that he called the defensive signals. Usually linebackers do that, but Tony called the signals (relayed) from the bench from (secondary) coach (Dale) Evans and (defensive coordinator) coach (Richard) Bell."

Green died Sunday at age 70 from a brief illness. He was living in the Bell County community of Nolanville.

Green lettered for the Red Raiders in 1972, redshirted in 1973 and was a starter in 1974 and 1975, on Jim Carlen's last Texas Tech team and Steve Sloan's first.

The combination of the vowel sound of his last name and his hometown lent itself to a poetic nickname: Mean Tony Green from Seguin. But he was more than a cool name.

After the 1975 season, in that loaded competition at defensive back, Green was named second-team all-Southwest Conference by United Press International. He played in the Blue-Gray Football Classic, the Coaches All-America Game at Jones Stadium and was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons.

He was credited with 77 tackles in 1974. Though Green's statistics for 1975 could not be located, a story that October in his hometown Seguin Gazette-Enterprise documents that he was credited with seven tackles and two assists against Florida State, seven tackles and four assists against Texas and five tackles for loss and two assists against Oklahoma State.

"If he got his hands on you, you were done," Hoskins said. "You didn't break tackles from him; I don't care who you were. It just didn't happen.

"He just understood things, saw the field. His anticipation was good. He was long and quick and fast and smart at that position."

Former Tech noseguard David Knaus signed in the same class as Green. They began rooming together on a summer job in San Antonio before they got to Tech and, not long after they arrived, became fraternity brothers in Phi Delta Theta.

"He had one of the fastest backpedal times recorded with some of the testing they did on freshmen," Knaus said. "He was a good-sized guy, and he was a tough nut and a physical guy, but he was also very athletic and very skilled."

Green was listed at 6-foot-2 and 186 pounds his senior year. Knaus spent 36 years in coaching, much of it in college programs, and said Green's skills would have translated to today.

"He was good in the '70s, obviously," Knaus said, "but I think the type of player that he was, at this point time he would have been an outstanding player in this era because of his size, his physicality and his athleticism, to be able to (defend) against the different type of offenses that people run today."

After growing up an hour south of Austin, Green chose the Red Raiders over the Longhorns, who were riding high under Darrell Royal.

"As a kid I went to every Longhorn game," Green said in a 1975 story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "When it got down to going to either Texas or Tech, I told 'em both I'd go there. It was a hard decision.

"People at home wanted to know why I chose Tech, and said we'd never beat Texas. I told 'em we'd wait and see."

As it turns out, Green played in one of the Red Raiders' most lopsided victories over the Longhorns, a nationally televised 26-3 beatdown in 1974 at Jones Stadium. Hoskins said the week of that game, Green developed a carbuncle in a thigh infection and was hospitalized for treatment.

He still played on Saturday, though.

"That's how tough he was," Hoskins said. "He wasn't going to miss that game."

A visitation for Green is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at The Country Church in Marion, followed by a memorial service at 3 p.m.

Among his survivors are his wife Jayne, daughters Rachel Danielle Green of Dallas and Audrey Marguerite Green of Lubbock and a sister, Judy Green Mueller of Marion.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Remembering Tony Green: Former Texas Tech safety dies at 70