Bob Kalsu

[BarryBnds]

I was just looking up old players at OU and came across this blog about Bob Kalsu. I'm not saying you guys should do anything but I think it would be cool to send his daughter/family a letter everynow and again to let them know what a hero their dad was. I've got it on my calendar to do when the season starts.

http://bradley1969.blogspot.com/2007/05/honoring-vet-on-memorial-day.html

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

I was just looking up old players at OU and came across this blog about Bob Kalsu. I'm not saying you guys should do anything but I think it would be cool to send his daughter/family a letter everynow and again to let them know what a hero their dad was. I've got it on my calendar to do when the season starts.

http://bradley1969.blogspot.com/2007/05/honoring-vet-on-memorial-day.html

For the younger crowd, he's the Pat Tillman of Vietnam.

[Sooner04]

The process of retiring numbers/jerseys gets thrown around a lot, but if I had to pick one number in one sport for the entire University of Oklahoma I'd love to see Bob Kalsu's #77 put away for good. That guy was a true American hero.

Sports Illustrated - July 23, 2001 (http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1023026/index.htm)

[soonerfan28]

I'm part of that younger crowd but knew who Kalsu was. I believe he was also the only NFL player killed in Vietnam. I don't know how many if any went besides Kalsu.

[badger]

The Packers retired Reggie White's jersey as opposed to his number, because the NFL apparently discourages retired numbers.

I think a similar route could be taken with Kalsu's. Put it next to our mini-Washington Monument on the north side of the stadium. There are just too many stocked rosters in college ball to be retiring numbers permanently, unfortunately. It's why Antonio Perkins and Adrian Peterson had the same no. 28 jersey in the same season.

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

Don Steinbrunner is the only other former NFL player to die in Vietnam...but he didn't leave football for Vietnam the way Kalsu did. He played the 1953 season as an offensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns before quitting football to become career military.

Link (http://www.profootballhof.com/history/story.jsp?story_id=88)

[Taxman71]

Del City High School plays in Robert Kalsu Stadium (next to John Smith Fieldhouse). Not a bad duo representing.

[SoonerInFortSmith]

That is one of the most touching stories I've ever read. It would make one heck of a tearjerker movie.

It's no surprise that the only pro football player killed in Vietnam was from Oklahoma. That's the kind of person you find most often in the Sooner state.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

He was a damn good football player, too.

[King Crimson]

For the younger crowd, he's the Pat Tillman of Vietnam.

minus the government faking for PR purposes.

[stoopified]

OU's first consensus All-American -Walter R.(Waddy) Young of Ponca City was killed In WW2 when the B-29 he was piloting(Waddy's Wagon) was shot down over the Sea of Japan.Sooners are heroes.

[picasso]

I found his name at the Vietnam Memorial in DC the first time I visited it back in '96.

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

I found his name at the Vietnam Memorial in DC the first time I visited it back in '96.

There's a 3/4 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Piedmont this entire weekend, open to the public 24 hours a day through Sunday if anyone's interested.

[2k2 c5]

I was just looking up old players at OU and came across this blog about Bob Kalsu. I'm not saying you guys should do anything but I think it would be cool to send his daughter/family a letter everynow and again to let them know what a hero their dad was. I've got it on my calendar to do when the season starts.

http://bradley1969.blogspot.com/2007/05/honoring-vet-on-memorial-day.html

He's about 50 feet from my dad. I always pause and thank him as I go to the car...

[AlbqSooner]

There's a 3/4 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Piedmont this entire weekend, open to the public 24 hours a day through Sunday if anyone's interested.

When I lived in Florida, I got a chance to visit the "Moving Wall". I found the names of some people I grew up to whom I had not been able to say my goodbyes.

Although it is a replica, it is Holy ground. God travels with the Wall.

[Sooner70]

Yep. I recall Kalsu when I was going to OU. Players then were a light, quick & a scrappy bunch. I may be wrong, but I thought SI redid the story on Bob & family in October or so in 2007. Kinda a update thing I think. A real American Hero. I think he was the only NFL casualty in Vietnam. Mighta been the only one that went, I don't know. He didn't have to go, and coulda dodged the duty real easy, but he wasn't one to do that type thing. I think his tour of duty was within a few days of being done when his base camp got shelled & that was when he got hit. I think he was in the Rangers but not sure.

[Speck]

I found his name at the Vietnam Memorial in DC the first time I visited it back in '96.

I saw it there in April as well. A piece of paper was on the ground that had a write up about him and his story.

That memorial is unbelievable. I can't explain it, you just have to see it.

[IronHorseSooner]

OU's first consensus All-American -Walter R.(Waddy) Young of Ponca City was killed In WW2 when the B-29 he was piloting(Waddy's Wagon) was shot down over the Sea of Japan.Sooners are heroes.

The Battalion Commander for the operation that caught Saddam was also a Sooner.