DALLAS, Texas –– Perhaps the most dominant defensive lineman in The University of Tulsa football history, Willie Townes, died at the age of 74 on Saturday in Dallas, Texas.
Townes transferred to Tulsa from Coffeyville Junior College after one season at the University of Indiana. He and teammates Charlie Brown, Randy Phillips, Richard Tyson and Jim Brown were the first to break the color line in 1964 playing for the Golden Hurricane.
As a sophomore, he became a defensive mainstay on two Bluebonnet Bowl teams and was twice selected as an all-Missouri Valley Conference defensive lineman. Townes was on Tulsa teams that posted a 9-2 record in 1964 and an 8-3 mark a year later in 1965.