Colin Ridgway

Colin Edwin Ridgway (February 19, 1937 – May 13, 1993) was an American football punter distinguished as being the first Australian to play in the National Football League.

Track and Field
Ridgway was a high jumper who competed at the 1956 Olympic Games and 1958 Commonwealth Games for Australia. He had also competed in the Australian Open Track and Field Championships from 1955/56 to 1959/60. Ridgway failed to make the 1960 Australian Olympic team and so accepted an offer of a track and field scholarship to Lamar Tech (now Lamar University), before joining the Dallas Cowboys. In 1961 he became the first Commonwealth athlete to clear 7 foot in the high jump.

VFL career
Ridgway began his sporting career playing Australian rules football. He reached the VFL reserves level, playing for the Carlton Football Club in the 1960s.

NFL career
Ridgway attended Lamar University in Texas, where the Dallas Cowboys discovered him and signed him to their 1965 team. He participated a total of three games as a punter, making him the first Australian to play in the NFL. It turned out that the running drop-kicks that were commonly used at that time in Aussie Rules didn't translate well into the American game. But Ridgway stayed in Dallas and became a successful businessman.

Murder
Colin Ridgway was murdered at his University Park, Texas home in 1993. To date, no arrests have been made and the case remains open.