Moose are clumsy critters. That Doug Wilkerson should have been likened to one was all wrong.
It happened in his second season with the Chargers in 1972. As he remembers, in a blocking drill he was involved in a thunderous collision with the guy opposite him.
"Sounded like two bull moose colliding!" exclaimed the late Joe Madro, Sid Gillman's offensive line coach, as Wilkerson recalls.
The name stuck. Henceforth through his time with the Chargers, Wilkerson would be known as "Moosey." Still is, for that matter.
"I'm not offended by it," he said.
He might be. As a guard, Wilkerson represented a prototype of what a player at this position can be – technically proficient, thoroughly schooled in the game's fundamentals and additionally tremendously fit and faster than many backs.
In recognition of Wilkerson's abilities, he is being received into the San Diego Hall of Champions' Breitbard Hall of Fame on Tuesday evening when the hall offers its 59th annual "Salute to the Champions" at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center.
Being recognized with Wilkerson are Joe Jessop for sailing, Scott Simpson for golf and Ernie Ladd for football.
While it was as a guard that he served the Chargers from 1971 through '84, Wilkerson possessed the sort of athleticism that would have permitted him to align just about anywhere on a football field. In his one season with the Houston Oilers in 1970, to make this point, he had served as a linebacker and an offensive tackle.
The year can be remembered as the one in which the AFL-NFL merger was implemented. The first selection in that year's draft was quarterback Terry Bradshaw of Louisiana Tech, named by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Oilers chose Wilkerson at No. 14, the first offensive lineman named. This, though he went to North Carolina Central, then North Carolina College, a predominantly black school in Fayetteville, where Wilkerson, the son of a military family, had grown up.
He had been recruited by many of the college football powers, but some of his teammates at E.E. Smith High in Fayetteville were attending North Carolina Central. They included Jimmy Raye, father of the Jimmy Raye who is the Chargers' director of college scouting, and Wilkerson determined to join them.
After one season with the Oilers, Wilkerson was dealt to San Diego for tight end Willie Frazier.
"It happened," he said, "and I came to San Diego and never looked back."
Wilkerson was effective against the most respected defenders he opposed. Howie Long of the Raiders could not get off the line of scrimmage against him. Neither could Randy White of the Cowboys. Long and White are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"Once you develop great technique, it never leaves you," Wilkerson said.
At the source of his technical mastery, he said, were his offensive line coaches, beginning with Madro. After him came Forrest Gregg, then Bobb McKittrick and Howard Mudd, Tommy Prothro having two offensive line coaches. The McKittrick/Mudd amalgam was followed by Jim Hanifan and Dave Levy.
"We had great offensive line coaches and great offensive linemen," Wilkerson said. Among his associates was Russ Washington. Wilkerson and Washington are the two players whose careers bridged the coaching tenures of Gillman and Don Coryell.
"They were great offensive minds, both very intense and both on the cutting edge of football," Wilkerson said of the two coaching legends. "Their goals were to win, and they put you in position to do it."
He can recite the names of some of the coaching greats who were associated with the Chargers during his time with the team. Joe Gibbs. Bill Walsh. Gillman. Coryell.
"The thing that is remarkable to me is how good we were from 1978 to '85," Wilkerson said. "We were putting up points, and we were doing it consistently. We had great players. We had great offensive teams. We had great teams, period."
In going into the hall, Wilkerson is joining seven of his Chargers contemporaries: Dan Fouts, Charlie Joiner, Kellen Winslow, Ed White, Willie Buchanon, Rolf Benirschke and Washington.
His career as a player concluding, Wilkerson for several years served the Raiders as a combination assistant offensive line coach-special teams coach-strength coach. At 57, he continues to work out while operating a marketing consulting firm. He weighs, by his accounting, 235, about 15 pounds less than his playing weight.
