Mike Simpson

Born   March 13, 1947 - Mena, Arkansas

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Mike Simpson was born in Mena, Arkansas. His family moved when he was very young, and he was raised in Groves, Texas.  
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He ran track and was also an outstanding running back at Port Neches-Groves High School. Simpson's head football coach was Bum Phillips, and the quarterback on the team was his son Wade Phillips. All three are now in MOGC's Hall of Fame. 
 
In 1965, Mike was the lead runner at PNG in their four-man 440 sprint relay team, setting a National Record of 41.2 seconds.  The time stood as the National Record and remained unbroken for years.  He also won the 220-meter race at the state meet with records that stand to this day. 

As a senior at Port Neches-Groves High School, Mike was elected King of their Senior Court with their Queen, cheerleader Laurie Nunez. Wade Phillips and Laurie were later married. To this day, Wade likes to remind Mike Simpson that he may have been the King, but that he got the Queen.

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In 1965, after two years at PNG, Bum Phillips took an assistant coaching position at the University of Houston and recruited three of his high school athletes to go with him: Simpson, George Caraway, and his son Wade.

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When Mike was ten years old, his parents bought him a blonde Fender Esquire guitar. Mike often played guitar in his dorm room at U of H, and one of his teammates asked him to teach him how to play. His pupil still has the beginner's guitar book Mike gave him. That person went on to use those lessons to further his life in the music industry and is known by everyone as Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers.
 
After a stand-out career at the University of Houston, Simpson was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the 13th round of the NFL draft. In the short time he was with the San Diego Chargers, Mike set the training camp team record for the fastest player to run the 40-Yard dash in full pads at 4.5 seconds—the fastest time in the history of the Chargers. Shortly after, San Francisco 49ers Vice President Jack White discovered Simpson, and negotiated a trade to obtain him.
 
Simpson's speed caused the San Francisco Coaching staff to consider moving Mike to the receiver position, but his remarkable skills in the defensive backfield proved to be a valuable asset and he remained on defense.

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Mike played with the San Francisco from 1970-1974. He coincidentally shared the defensive backfield with MOGC Hall of Famer Johnny Fuller, who was also a track star (decathlon and high jump) from Lamar University. 

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During his four years with the 49ers, they won 3 NFC Western Division Championships. After four grueling seasons, Mike realized during the 1975 pre-season that at 5'9" and 170 pounds, his body had experienced enough punishment, and he retired. 
 
Years later, Mike was diagnosed with the beginnings of dementia and Alzheimer's. He subsequently made the decision to participate in ongoing studies about the effects of repeated head impacts on NFL players.