ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Have a 24 hours, Bill Kollar.
An NFL defensive lineman for nine seasons, then a defensive line coach for 38 more, 34 of which were with NFL teams, Kollar retired after the Broncos’ 31-28 win Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers at Empower Field at Mile High. His long coaching career was recognized with a game ball presented by interim head coach Jerry Rosburg.
And then on Monday, Kollar learned he was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame for his defensive line play back in the early 1970s for Montana State.
“Football meant everything to me,’’ Kollar said in an interview Monday with 9NEWS. “Really enjoyed the [heck] out of it. The great coaches. The players. Paul Brown was my first head coach. I played in Cincinnati when Bill Walsh was on the staff. I played in Tampa Bay when Joe Gibbs was on the staff. I played six years for John McKay in Tampa Bay. Abe Gibron was my position coach. Just on and on. It turned out to be a great career with all the players that you coached. It's an awesome deal, really.''
The 18-player college HOF class of 2023 includes Tim Tebow, the former Broncos quarterback who was arguably the best player in college football history during his four years at the University of Florida from 2006-09. Kollar is the only player from the 1970s who was elected.
College football's ultimate individual honor came nearly 50 years after Kollar starred at Montana State. He was the Big Sky Defensive MVP in his junior season of 1972 and first-team All-American as a senior in 1973. Although Montana State was a Division I-AA program, he was invited to the Senior Bowl and became the first defensive player to earn the game’s MVP.
Kollar is now the first player from Montana State to be elected into the College Hall of Fame. A 255-pound nose tackle and defensive end, Kollar was a first-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1974, where he played three years, then six more with the Tampa Bay Bucs.
He began his 43-year coaching career in 1984 with the Bucs as a special teams/defensive assistant. Asked if there was a favorite player he coached, Kollar hesitated because he didn’t want to single anyone out.
He attended the College Football Hall of Fame banquet last year along with inductee Moe Gardner, whom Kollar coached at the University of Illinois. Another player Kollar coached in Atlanta, Chris Doleman, made it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But Kollar did eventually pick two players -- J.J. Watt, whom Kollar coached in Houston from 2011-14, a period when Watt won two of his three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, and the Broncos’ Derek Wolfe, whom Kollar coached from 2015-2019.
“To me, those two guys you can’t beat, no matter what,’’ Kollar said. “I know they’re a little different. Watt, his first day on the practice field, he was nonstop. I told him – J.J., you were a pleasure to [bleeping] coach. That SOB, he wanted to be a Hall of Famer. Everybody does to a certain extent but he put his [bleeping] play where his [bleeping] action was.
“And then Wolfe, he was like that. And both of them would come back at ya. Because I would be on their ass. And they would come back and I loved that [stuff]. I don’t want them to cower up. Come back at my ass, let’s get going.
“But I had a bunch of guys who were hard working, and those were the guys I loved. I didn’t really care if a guy was a great player. All I wanted that player to do was give me everything he had. And I had a bunch of those guys.”
In retirement, Kollar and his wife Jan plan to spend more time with their oldest son Chad – a starting safety at SMU in the mid-1990s -- his wife Whitney, and two grandsons (Bridger, named after the Bridger mountains in Montana, and Banks) in the Denver area. They will also travel to see the family of his youngest son Clint – a Harvard linebacker in the late 1990s – his wife Heather and three granddaughters (Sadie, Charlotte and Ellie) in the San Francisco area.
“I really don’t have anything planned,’’ Kollar said of retirement. “Obviously, I’ll bug the [heck] out of my grandkids, go to their games. We’ll travel a bunch. Down the road, I’ve got a buddy who’s coaching over in Europe. If he needs somebody to help him out, well I’ll help him out. I know Deion [Sanders] real well. I had him in Atlanta. If Deion wants me to come up to Boulder for a week or two to help out, I’ll help out. It’s not like those 16-hour days over the years that were nonstop for years. But if Montana State wants me to help out with a summer camp for a week, I’ll help them out.”
There is one event on Kollar’s retirement calendar: The College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023 induction dinner Dec. 5 in Las Vegas.
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