Larry Grantham

Larry Grantham
No. 60
Position:	Linebacker
Personal information
Born:	September 16, 1938 (age 85); Crystal Springs, Mississippi
Height:	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight:	210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
College:	Ole Miss
NFL draft:	1960 / Round: 15 / Pick: 178
AFL draft:	1960 / Round: 1 / Pick: --
Career history
	New York Titans/Jets (1960–1972); Florida Blazers (1974);
Career highlights and awards
	Super Bowl champion (III); AFL champion (1968); 5× AFL All-Star (1962–1964, 1966, 1969); American Football League All-Time Team;
	Player stats at PFR

Larry Grantham (born September 16, 1938) is a former American collegiate and professional football player.

A member of the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame, he was a linebacker of the University of Mississippi who came to the American Football League's New York Titans in the 1960 college draft and helped form the backbone of a New York Jets defense that reached the playoffs in 1968 and 1969, and in 1968 captured the AFL Championship and the World Championship, over the NFL's Baltimore Colts. Thus Grantham's team, with him as a starter throughout, went from being the worst team in an upstart league (the AFL) to World Champions in just nine years.^[1]

From his right outside linebacker spot, Grantham wrought havoc on opposing offenses. One of the Jets leading tacklers, he was named to the AFL All-Star team five times and played in eight league All-Star games. He was selected to the All-Time All- AFL second team.

He is one of only twenty players who were in the American Football League for its entire ten-year existence, and only seven AFL players who played their entire careers in one city. Grantham was also named the 1971 New York Jets MVP.

He played one last season in 1974 for the Florida Blazers of the start-up World Football League. The Blazers made it to the World Bowl 1, losing to the Birmingham Americans.

References

^ Chastain, Bill (2014). 100 Things Jets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. Triumph Books. p. 36. ISBN 9781629370002. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

[Chastain2014-1] Chastain, Bill (2014). 100 Things Jets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. Triumph Books. p. 36. ISBN 9781629370002. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

[1]

v t e New York Jets Super Bowl III champions
11 Jim Turner 12 Joe Namath (MVP) 13 Don Maynard 15 Babe Parilli 22 Jim Hudson 23 Bill Rademacher 24 Johnny Sample 26 Jim Richards 29 Bake Turner 30 Mark Smolinski 31 Bill Mathis 32 Emerson Boozer 33 Curley Johnson 34 Lee White 35 Billy Joe 41 Matt Snell 42 Randy Beverly 43 John Dockery 45 Earl Christy 46 Bill Baird 47 Mike D'Amato 48 Cornell Gordon 50 Carl McAdams 51 Ralph Baker 52 John Schmitt 56 Paul Crane 60 Larry Grantham 61 Bob Talamini 62 Al Atkinson 63 John Neidert 66 Randy Rasmussen 67 Dave Herman 68 Michael Stromberg 70 Karl Henke 71 Sam Walton 72 Paul Rochester 74 Jeff Richardson 75 Winston Hill 80 John Elliott 81 Gerry Philbin 83 George Sauer 85 Steve Thompson 86 Verlon Biggs 87 Pete Lammons
Head coach: Weeb Ewbank
Coaches: Walt Michaels Clive Rush Buddy Ryan Joe Spencer

See also

References