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Tom Keating (American football)

Player of American football (1942-2012)

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 revisionJul 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ7816406 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Arthur Keating (September 2, 1942 – August 31, 2012) was an American professional football defensive tackle. He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines from 1961 to 1963 and played 12 seasons in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) from 1964 to 1975. He was an AFL All-Star in 1966 and 1967, a key to the 1967 Oakland Raiders' defensive line that led the team to a 13–1 record and the 1967 AFL Championship, and was considered "the premier tackle in the old American Football League". He was known for his use of a distinctive four-point stance in which he lined up with both hands on the ground.

Early life

Keating was born in Chicago in 1942. He attended St. Mel High School in Chicago.

College career

Keating enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1960 and played college football at the tackle position on head coach Bump Elliott's Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1961 to 1963. As a junior, he started eight of nine games at left tackle for the 1962 Michigan Wolverines football team that compiled a 2–7 record and finished in last place in the Big Ten Conference. As a senior, he started all nine games at left tackle and was selected as the Most Valuable Player on the 1963 Michigan Wolverines football team that compiled a 3-4-2 record and finished in fifth place in the Big Ten Conference.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tom Keating (American football)” as player of American football (1942-2012). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

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—1942, 2012, 1961, 1963—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1942-09-02. The account is most persuasive where Keating, American and football can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as player of American football (1942-2012). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

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 Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7816406. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 2012, 1961 and 1963.

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 “Tom Keating (American football)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tom Keating (American football) primary sources, Tom Keating (American football) archive and Keating 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 “Tom Keating (American football)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tom Keating (American football)” 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.