Don Nottingham
player of American football
Donald Ray Nottingham (born June 26, 1949) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He was affectionately referred to as "the Human Bowling Ball" because of his short but robust frame. He played college football for the Kent State Golden Flashes.
Early career and college
Don Nottingham first attended Windham school system in Windham Ohio then to Ravenna High School in Ravenna, Ohio, and played college football at nearby Kent State University. He was a three-year letterman, and captained the team his senior year. He finished his college career with 2,515 yards on 602 carries. He also made the first-team All-Mid-American Conference teams in 1969 and 1970. Nottingham's Golden Flashes teammates included future head coaches Gary Pinkel (Toledo, Missouri) and Nick Saban (Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, Alabama).
Professional career
Nottingham was selected in the 17th round of the 1971 NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts, the second to last pick of the draft. He spent two full years in Baltimore before being traded midway through the 1973 NFL season to the Don Shula-led Miami Dolphins.
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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 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5293227. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1969, 1970 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Don Nottingham” 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.