Colin Scotts

Colin Scotts is the only Australian to win a football scholarship in the United States of America and then have an outstanding career in the NFL.  Colin played defensive end for the University of Hawaii, the St Louis Cardinals, the Arizona Cardinals and the Houston Oilers. He played five years of college football and five years as a professional.

Colin’s sports career was one that delivered some great times – money, travel, women, good mates. It was also one that delivered setbacks and disasters that tested his endurance and courage in a world where success is measured in dollars, statistics and TV ratings. It was a lonely and often brutal existence, but through it all, Colin’s irrepressible spirit and Aussie humour shone through.

A highly motivational speaker, Colin’s personal story is entertaining while providing an enlightening insight into human nature. Colin is regularly engaged to help train corporate groups in team building. He uses his experiences to show others how they can overcome hardship to succeed against the odds.

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Colin Scotts was brought up with five sisters and two brothers on Sydney’s Palm Beach, surfing and making mischief. While he loved all sports, rugby was his passion and his dream was to be a Wallaby like his uncle. It was odd then that the 1981 Australian Schoolboys rugby tour was going to change all that forever.

On that tour, a University of Hawaii talent scout spotted Colin and offered him a football scholarship. As an outsider in the competitive and often brutal world of American college football he faced resentment by those who thought he had “stolen” a place meant for an American. He was victimised and subjected to physical violence on and off the field but, with his trademark humour and determination, he overcame the obstacles & odds of one in a million to become a household name and then to be drafted into the NFL on the front line of the St Louis Cardinals’ defence. No other Aussie has achieved that before or since.

This achievement catapulted him into the world of professional American sport where he thrived for the next four years until, playing for the Houston Oilers, a freak injury taught him why the NFL is known as the Not For Long League. Colin stayed on in the States, living the high life, taking on the world as a WWF pro-wrestler, becoming a successful businessman in the area of natural gas, telecommunications, and home health care, before returning to Sydney for the Olympics.

Back in Australia he wrote All Balls, a book about his experiences, which was published by PanMacmillan in late 2002.

Colin is passionate about helping Australian children stay healthy and avoid obesity. He is an active ambassador for Bluearth, a unique movement approach to learning that improves children’s behaviour, self esteem, confidence, health and academic achievements.