Doug Free

Born in Manitowoc on January 16, 1984, he finished Lincoln in 2002 as a first-team all-conference player as a junior and senior, the FRCC Defensive Player of the Year, and a first-team all-state selection as a senior. Parents David and Lois raised him in the Ships program that would later put him on the wall of fame.

Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak saw a tackle, not a tight end. Free grew from about 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds into 6-6 and more than 320, started forty-nine straight Huskie games, and earned the locker-room nickname "Doug Freak" for footwork that survived the weight. Dallas took him 122nd overall in 2007. A knee sprain buried the rookie year; from 2010 he started every game he played, first on the left side and then on the right when Tyron Smith moved over, anchoring the quiet end of an All-Pro line. Career totals run to 124 games and 114 starts. He retired in 2017 rather than play out a final year scheduled at $5 million.

In 2019 Lincoln named him honorary captain for a Notre Dame Academy game the Ships won 37–0; his message to the players was not to look back in twenty years wishing they had left more on the field. He and Dorothy, an NIU classmate, raise beef cattle in Walworth County. Lincoln inducted him onto its wall of fame in January 2026. The Manitowoc tie is birth, Lincoln High, and a hometown that still claims the Cowboys decade.