Willie Zapalac

Willie Frank Zapalac (December 11, 1920 – May 18, 2010) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football Tarleton State College—now known as Tarleton State University—from 1949 to 1950 and Arlington State College—now known as the University of Texas at Arlington—in 1952, when both schools were junior colleges. Zapalac played college football as a Fullback at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas—now known as Texas A&M University. He was an assistant coach at Texas A&M from 1953 to 1960, Texas Technological College—now known as Texas Tech University— from 1961 to 1962, Oklahoma State University–Stillwater in 1963, and University of Texas at Austin from 1964 to 1975. He then coached in the National Football League (NFL) with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1976 to 1977, the Buffalo Bills from 1978 to 1980, and the New Orleans Saints from 1981 to 1985.

While at the University of Texas, Zapalac coached under Darrell Royal for 12 seasons. During that time, the Texas Longhorns won seven Southwest Conference (SWC) championships and two national championships. Zapalac was known for producing many offensive lines for Texas's wishbone offense. For a period of five years, at least one offensive lineman was named to All-American teams and two of those five have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.