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Milt McColl

American football player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ6860829
Source-derived summary

Milton Bird McColl (born August 28, 1959) is an American physician and former football linebacker. He played college football at Stanford University and in the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 1988, during which he played for the San Francisco 49ers from 1981 to 1987 and Los Angeles Raiders in 1988. With the 49ers, McColl appeared in Super Bowl XVI and Super Bowl XIX. He is the son of former Stanford and NFL end Bill McColl.

Early life

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, McColl graduated from South Hills High School in West Covina, California in 1977.

College career

Following in the footsteps of his father and brother, McColl attended Stanford University and played at linebacker for the Stanford Cardinal from 1977 to 1980. On the 1978 team that won the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, McColl led the team in sacks with seven. As a senior in 1980, McColl led Stanford in sacks (four) and tackles for loss (eight).

Pro football career

Signing with the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 1981, McColl played for the 49ers from 1981 to 1987 as an outside linebacker. As a rookie with the 49ers, McColl came off the bench for all 16 regular season games and three playoff games for the 1981 team that won Super Bowl XVI and returned an interception for 22 yards. With five seconds before halftime in Super Bowl XVI, McColl recovered a fumbled kick return by Archie Griffin.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Milt McColl” as american football player. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Milt, McColl and American.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1959, 1981, 1988, 1987—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1959-08-28. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Milt, McColl and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Milt McColl”, the useful work is to connect “american football player” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6860829. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1981, 1988 and 1987.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Milt McColl”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Milt McColl primary sources, Milt McColl archive and Milt research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Milt McColl”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Milt McColl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.