Education
University of Oklahoma.
captain Soldier Football player
University of Oklahoma.
Young was the first consensus All-American football player out of the University of Oklahoma. He led the team to its first conference championship ever as well as its first bowl berth ever, in the 1939 Orange Bowl. He also starred as a heavyweight wrestler for the Sooners.
After college he played professionally for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National Football League, where he played in the league"s first televised game.
Afterwards he volunteered to go back into combat in the Pacific Theatre against the Empire of Japan, where he flew B-29 Super Fortresses. He was killed on January 9, 1945, in a plane crash during a B-29 raid over Tokyo as he attempted to assist a comrade whose plane had one engine on fire.
The University of Oklahoma Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Arnold Air Society squadron and Silver Wings chapter is named in honor of Waddy Young.
He voluntarily gave up his NFL career to become a member of the elite flying club who piloted America’s B-24 Liberator bombers over the European Theatre, flying 9,000 hours against mighty German Luftwaffe.