Phil robertson biography football played

Patriarch of the family, Phil, is a living legend in Louisiana and is better known by his alias: the Duck Commander. He may not look like it now, but Phil played American football at Louisiana Tech University in the ’60s. He was drafted into the NFL but turned it down because it interfered with duck season. Instead he stayed in Louisiana, married his high school sweetheart, Miss Kay, built a house down by the river and together they raised four sons.

Never satisfied with the duck calls on the market, Phil began to experiment with making a call that would produce the exact sound of a duck. A duck call for duck killers, not for, as Phil described, “world champion-style duck callers.” Phil stated, “No duck would even place in a duck calling contest.” In 1972, Phil Robertson gave up a coaching career for his love of duck hunting when he whittled a better duck call than any on the market, the first Duck Commander call. His first year, Robertson sold $8,000 worth of duck calls and his wife, Kay, somehow managed to feed four boys on that salary. The same year, he received a patent for this call and in 1973, formed the Duck Commander Company.

The Robertson family home in West Monroe, Louisiana, became the Duck Commander factory, from where he and family members assembled, packaged, and shipped all the calls. Phil traveled from store to store and state to state in those early days, with most of his attempts to sell the new product line ending in rejections.

In the beginning, Kay and their sons not only helped Phil with the Duck Commander business, but they also ran the nets and took fish to market in a side commercial fishing business that kept food on the table.

Since 1973, the Duck Commander Duck Call has become the most trusted duck whistle ever.

Phil's biography, Happy, Happy, Happy, spent many weeks at number one on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Duck hunting is so important to Phil that he follows a strict routine of no showering,

American professional hunter, businessman and reality television star

For the New Zealand sailor, see Phil Robertson (sailor).

Phil Alexander Robertson (born April 24, 1946) is an American professional hunter, businessman (Duck Commander company), and reality television star on the popular television series Duck Dynasty. He is also featured on the television show Duck Commander, a hunting program on the Outdoor Channel.

He attended Louisiana Tech University, where he played football. He received a master's degree in education and spent several years teaching.

Robertson was the subject of controversy after a 2013 interview he did with GQ magazine, where he said that homosexual behavior was sinful. As a result, A&E suspended him from Duck Dynasty. Facing a strong backlash from his supporters, A&E lifted the suspension after nine days.

In September 2023, a biographical film on the early life of Robertson, The Blind, was released in theaters.

Early life and education

Robertson was born in Vivian, Louisiana. He was the fifth of seven children of Merritt (née Hale) and James Robertson. Because of financial setbacks during his childhood, the family lived in rugged conditions, having no electricity, toilet or bathtub. The family rarely went into town to buy groceries, and instead lived off of the fruits and vegetables they grew in their garden; the meat from deer, squirrels, fish and other game they hunted and fished; and the pigs, chickens, and cattle they raised.

In his book, Happy, Happy, Happy, Robertson recalls that "It was the 1950s when I was a young boy, but we lived like it was the 1850s ... but we were always happy, happy, happy no matter the circumstances."

Halfway between Vivian and Hosston is Robertson's restored log cabin birth home. The property is owned by Robertson's cousin, Nathan Hale.^[9

Editor’s note: Welcome to another installment of “How Good Was He?” It’s an occasional Playbook series in which we delve deep into the athletic pasts of celebrities.

With his full gray beard, bandana, camouflage clothes and dark glasses, Phil Robertson looks like a rocker from ZZ Top gone rogue.

Yet Robertson, who first found wealth as the inventor of the Duck Commander duck calls and then fame as the patriarch of a clan of Louisiana duck hunters on A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” reality series, is no backwoods bumpkin. He’s a multi-millionaire with a master’s degree in education. He’s also perhaps the best athlete ever to come out of the little town of Vivian, La.

In the 1960s, Robertson, now 66, was the starting quarterback at Louisiana Tech for two seasons ahead of Terry Bradshaw. His teammates and a coach recall him as a talented, outdoors-obsessed character who walked away from his final year of eligibility to spend more time hunting and fishing, but had the talent to play in the NFL:

Robertson: As a little kid, looking back on it, I could always throw farther than all the other kids. The point is, a good arm, my man -- you’re born with that. You can’t teach someone how to do that. It’s either there or it’s not, you know what I’m saying?

Alan Robertson (Phil’s oldest son): When Dad was in high school he was a baseball pitcher and a javelin thrower. He basically was all-state in both. That shows you the arm strength was there, not just in football, but the other sports as well.

E.J. Lewis, defensive backs coach: He had a good presence in the pocket. He knew what he was doing back there. He had a good arm. I mean that booger could chuck that football. He was a good football player, a natural. … When we would scrimmage each other, offense and defense, I coached the secondary and I could hear that thing (ball) comin