He was recruited as a quarterback,[2] but began his collegiate career as a linebacker for the 1967 Michigan Wolverines football team.

The day before the game, a fight broke out between players from the two teams as they passed each other in the tunnel at Michigan Stadium.

Sports Illustrated noted at the time: "The Wolverines' ends, [Mike] Keller and Cecil Pryor, kept [Rex] Kern so well contained that he gained only 28 yards in 11 runs after his initial 25-yard effort.

Interviewed in 1993, Pryor recalled, "That was probably the greatest game I ever participated in my life, and I had been playing since the fourth grade.

"[2] With the victory over Ohio State, Michigan won the Big Ten Conference's spot in the 1970 Rose Bowl.

Teammate Jim Brandstatter recalled, "When it was Cecil's time for his intro, he looked directly into the camera, and with a serious, professorial scowl said, 'Cecil Pryor, defensive end, Corpus Christi, Texas, senior, majoring in nuclear physics.

[10] After the game, a writer in The Michigan Daily wrote that the Pryor had been accused of "dogging it" in the past, but not against USC: "His detractors should have seen him in the Rose Bowl.

[14] He played for the Alouettes under head coach Marv Levy as part of the team's starting front four during the 1973 CFL season.

[18] He sustained a cheek injury in a game against Ottawa and was waived through the league and dropped in early September 1973.

"[2] He entered the Ford Motor Company dealer training program in the 1990s and purchased a dealership in Jackson, Michigan.