Hugh Green Biography

Hugh Donell Green was born on July 27, 1959, and played 11 seasons as a linebacker in the National Football League from 1981 to 1991. He played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers as a defensive end and earned three-time consensus All-American honors. Green was selected in the first round of the 1981 NFL draft and played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Miami Dolphins. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and played defensive end for the Panthers from 1977 to 1980. Green was part of a team that included four future NFL Hall of Fame players: Rickey Jackson, Russ Grimm, Jimbo Covert, and Dan Marino. In 1980, he won the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Lombardi Award, and was named Sporting News Player of the Year and UPI Player of the Year. His second-place finish in the Heisman Trophy voting was the best ever for a defensive specialist until Charles Woodson won in 1997.