Chris Willis has worked at NFL Films as head of the Research Library since 1996. His first book, Old Leather: An Oral History of Early Pro Football in Ohio, 1920–1935, was published in 2005, by Scarecrow Press. Old Leather was given the 2005 Nelson Ross Award by the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) for recent achievement in football research and historiography. His second book, The Columbus Panhandles: A Complete History of Pro Football’s Toughest Team, 1900–1922, was published in 2007, by Scarecrow Press. His third book, The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr, was published by Scarecrow Press in 2010. Willis’s fourth title, Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions, was released in 2012. In 2014, Willis wrote his fifth book, A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers, published by Rowman & Littlefield.
As resident historian at NFL Films, Willis helps oversee all aspects of research for the company and their producers. In 2002, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives: Pro Football’s Wonder Years, and Willis won an Emmy in 2016, for his work on HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He is a member of the PFRA and writes for the blog Pro Football Journal.
In 1997 and 1998, Willis gave oral presentations at the “Pro Football and American Life” symposiums held at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Before starting at NFL Films, he graduated with a B.S. in physical education from Urbana (Ohio) University—while playing four years on the Urbana football team—and attended one year of graduate school at Ohio State University, studying sports history. Willis is a native of Columbus, Ohio, and currently resides in Audubon, New Jersey.