| No. 25, 29 | |||||||||||||
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| Position: | Safety | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born: | March 9, 1966 Belle Glade, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight: | 224 lb (102 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| High school: | Glades Central (Belle Glade) | ||||||||||||
| College: | Florida | ||||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1989 / Round: 1 / Pick: 25 | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
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| Player stats at NFL.com · PFR | |||||||||||||
Louis Oliver, III (born March 9, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a safety for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Oliver played college football for the Florida Gators, earning All-American honors twice. He was a first-round pick in the 1989 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the Miami Dolphins and the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL.
Oliver was born in Belle Glade, Florida in 1966.[1] He attended Glades Central High School in Belle Glade,[2] and was a standout high school football player for the Glades Central Raiders.[3] Memorably, Oliver blocked two punts in the same game as a junior.[3]
After graduating from high school, Oliver attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a walk-on player on head coach Galen Hall's Florida Gators football team in 1985.[4][5] Subsequently, Oliver not only earned an athletic scholarship,[5] he became a starting free safety and team captain, and totaled 11 career interceptions.[4] He was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1987 and 1988, a first-team All-American in 1987 and a consensus first-team All-American in 1988, and a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll honoree.[4][6] Oliver was also the recipient of the Gators' Fergie Ferguson Award recognizing the "senior football player who displays outstanding leadership, character and courage."[4]
Oliver graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 1989, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2000.[7][8] In one of a series of articles written for The Gainesville Sun in 2006, the Sun sports editors chose him as No. 24 among the greatest 100 Gators from the first century of Florida football.[9]
Oliver was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the first round (25th overall) of the 1989 NFL Draft.[10] He played seven seasons for the Dolphins (1989–1993, 1995–1996) and one season for the Cincinnati Bengals (1994).[11] Oliver was reunited in the Dolphins' defensive backfield with his former Gators teammate Jarvis Williams, and the pair were the Dolphins' starting safeties for the next five seasons. Arguably Oliver's greatest career highlight was an October 4, 1992 interception of a pass thrown by Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, which he returned 103 yards for a touchdown,[11] and is the longest interception return in Dolphins history.[12]
During his eight-year NFL career, Oliver played in 117 regular season games, started 101 of them, and recorded 544 tackles and 27 interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns.[1]
Following his professional football career, Oliver used his pro sports connections to launch a business as a professional party liaison for sports stars and celebrities in South Florida. When his party connections began to dry up, he focused on the real estate market to become a specialist in high-end, up-market properties for celebrities, and is currently a general partner in a Miami-based real estate firm.
