Willis, 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, played center in the final days of Joplin Junior College and the early days of Missouri Southern. He graduated in 1971 and went on to coach at Wisconsin-Whitewater before dying on New Year’s Day in 1981 of a brain tumor. He was 32 years old. Wills also was active in campus activities, and according to one report, his cool head helped avert a racial disturbance on the football team at one point in the 1970 season.