Bill Osborn

Bill Osborn is one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the University of Pittsburgh and a celebrated athlete at the high school, college and professional levels. Osborn has also had a successful career as an NFL scout, a color analyst, and he currently works as an executive in the medical device industry.

Professional Football Career

Osborn played professionally in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles [1]. He also played for the Barcelona Dragons [Barcelona Dragons | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Dragons] of the World League and in the Arena Football League with the Pittsburgh Gladiators [1990 Pittsburgh Gladiators season | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Pittsburgh_Gladiators_season], now the Tampa Bay Storm. As a starting WR/LB for the Gladiators in 1990 he caught 11 passes for 159 yards and made 3 interceptions [2].

After retiring because of head and neck injuries, Osborn became a Kansas City Chief scout [3] for two years.

Broadcast Career

Post football, Osborn began a broadcast career that has spanned 23 years. During that time, he’s worked with ESPN Radio, Comcast [4], Fox Sports Net, WABC-TV and WIP-AM. He was a pre-game, post-game and color analyst for the Big East and University of Pittsburgh Football Network, as well as the color analyst for the Philadelphia Soul [5] of the Arena Football League. He also served as the color analyst for Comcast/CN8 regional college game of the week.

Amateur Career

Osborn attended the University of Pittsburgh [6] where he went on to star at three sports [7] – football, basketball and baseball. While at Pitt, he became the first athlete since Mike Ditka [8] to earn a letter in all three sports. He was awarded nine varsity letters at Pitt – four each in football and baseball, and one in basketball. He finished his college football career in the top-10 all-time receiving list for the Panthers. As a member of the Pitt basketball team, Osborn was part of the 1986-87 Big East Conference championship team.

Dubbed "The Wizard of Oz," at Wildwood High School [9] in Wildwood Crest, N.J., Osborn is one of the most highly respected athletes to emerge from southern New Jersey.

Osborn won 11 varsity sports letters at Wildwood High [10], here he graduated in 1984. He won all-league first-team honors nine times, and is the only person to win first team all CAL, all 4 years in baseball playing three different positions. He also won all-state honors in football and baseball, and scored 1,148 points in basketball.

In 1990, Osborn was named the 1980s South Jersey Male High School Athlete of the Decade and a core part of Wildwood High School’s football tradition by the Atlantic City Press [11], and was selected to the All Decade baseball and football [12] teams. In November 1996, he was inducted into the South Jersey Basketball Hall Of Fame [13] and in 1999 his high school #12 was officially retired [14] by the Wildwood Board of Education.

Bio

Osborn and his two sons, Billy 12 and Trent 9, live in Marlton, N.J. He’s Director of National Accounts for Medtronic, Inc. [15], a leader in the medical device industry and a Fortune 50 company. He is also president of the Bill Osborn Foundation [16] which focuses on colon cancer awareness and raises money for underprivileged children through a celebrity golf tournament in his father’s name, run in partnership with the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and Cape Regional Medical Center in Cape May County. Osborn [17] also serves as an advisor to VICIS [18], a company developing a new football helmet [19] designed to mitigate the forces likely to cause concussion.