Cotton, 62, died last week at Mary Scott Nursing Home in Dayton. According to Wilson, Cotton had been on medical disability for about 10 years and also had contracted lung cancer.
A Macon, Miss., native and Dunbar High School graduate, Cotton was part of a Flyers football era that sent several players to pro football. Considered massive at the time at 6 feet 2, 255 pounds, he played on the UD defensive line from 1969-71.
Drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1972, he played three games that season before a knee injury knocked him out of the NFL.
“That was one of his goals as an athlete, to play with the Cleveland Browns,” said Wilson, who also toiled in the NFL, World Football League and Canadian Football League as a defensive lineman.
Friends and family packed his funeral at Mt. Enon Missionary Baptist Church last weekend.
Wilson and Cotton remained good friends long after each left UD. They eventually played against each other when Cotton was a member of the World Football League’s Memphis Southmen and Wilson with the Detroit Wheels. The Southmen’s coach was John McVay, who also was UD’s head coach when Wilson and Cotton played there.
Dr. Tim Quinn of the Kettering Health Network recalled how he first met Cotton when he was at Dunbar. Both were shot put and discus standouts, Quinn at Alter.
“He was a good athlete,” Dr. Quinn recalled. “I was a linebacker and Fest was my defensive tackle and he was formidable. When he would get double-teamed, he’d take the whole side of that line and I’d be there ready to make the tackle.
“He was big as a mountain and had a heart of gold.”
Yet another former UD teammate, running back Gary Kosins of Chaminade, would play with the St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL.
“He was a great player and an even better man,” said Kosins, who now resides at Sebastian, Fla.
Cotton stayed in the area after retiring from football. He worked for the Miami Paper Company in West Carrollton and retired from the Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority.
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