By Mark Eckel | Engagement Insider
To say William Fuller has been successful in every venture he’s tried would be an understatement.
Success has followed Fuller from his days as a four-time Pro Bowl player for Houston, Philadelphia and San Diego to a real estate developer to a philanthropist raising money for diabetes research to his latest success as a director for Football University.
Fuller retired from the NFL after the 1998 season after making four Pro Bowls and recording 100 1/2 sacks in eight seasons with the Houston Oilers, three with the Philadelphia Eagles and his final two with the San Diego Chargers.
“Football, the NFL was great to me,” Fuller said. “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve been able to do a lot of things. I have four beautiful daughters, three of whom have already graduated from college. All my dreams have come true and football is what made it all possible.”
After retiring, Fuller founded his own real estate development company in Norfolk, Virginia and did very well until the decline in the housing market forced him out.
Along the way he was on the board of directors for the National Junior Diabetes research and through his efforts helped raise over $3 million for the cause.
He also met a young man at the time named Jeffrey Lurie, who would later become the owner of the Eagles when Fuller was in his second season with the team.
“Funny how things work,” Fuller said with a chuckle. “I knew the Lurie family and Jeffrey. Then he bought the team and he was Mr. Lurie.”
Then four years ago he got back to the game he loved so much.
“I got a call from a couple of old teammates,” Fuller said. “Kurt Gouveia and Ethan Horton were working with the camps and were going to be in Williamsburg. That’s not far for me, so I drove over to see them.”
What he saw was his first look at Football University, a camp for players from the 6th through 12th grades.
“I really liked what I saw,” Fuller said. “I met the owners. We talked for a little bit. It didn’t happen right away, but in time I got involved. I think they could tell how much I enjoyed it.”
Fuller started out working at the camps, there are 45 in all that are held all across the country, and before he knew it became one of six full-time employees of Football University.
“They’re good camps,” Fuller said. “It’s three days. We’re probably on the field for 18 hours and then there’s classroom work, lots of classroom work. We have seminars for the parents to let them know what to expect from a standpoint of recruitment. We just try to get them ready.”
The camp gets the younger players ready for high school football and the older players ready for college football, whether it’s Division I or a lower level.
Fuller is one of over 200 former NFL players and coaches involved with the University, and one of their former pupils is Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, expected to be the top pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.
“We coach the kids as if it was the NFL,” Fuller said. “The kids have no idea how technical things are. But we get great feed back. What we do works.”
That’s no surprise since everything Fuller has done has worked. And now it’s just back to doing what he really likes.
“I do enjoy it,” he said. “I enjoy it immensely. I know what I love to do. And this was an opportunity to get back to football, to get back on the football field.”
Fuller toyed with the idea of getting into coaching and spent time with one of his old teams, the Philadelphia Eagles, as a training camp intern a few years ago.
“I think I would have liked that,” he said. “But it didn’t work out. I still think about it some times. But I’m getting a little older now. So, I don’t know.”
He knows he enjoys working with the kids, helping them to achieve the goals he did.
“I’ve been fortunate, blessed,” Fuller said. “I played 15 years, never had a serious injury. I made a lot of great friends. I look around and see a lot of them still involved in one way or another. It’s great. This is just a great game.”