James Calvin Bird (February 11, 1938 – June 19, 2013) was an American football halfback who played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the Kentucky Wildcats and spent an off-season in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL) with the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

as a wide receiver.

Early life and high school

Bird grew up in Corbin, Kentucky and played football and basketball and ran track at

Corbin High School Corbin High School (CHS) is a senior high school in Corbin, Kentucky, United States. A part of the Corbin Independent School District, it serves grades 9–12. In 2016, it had about 950 students. He also set the state scoring record his junior year and the national scoring record his senior year, the latter in which he scored 264 points. In basketball, he averaged 32 points per game as a senior. The school later retired his No. 66 football jersey.

College

Bird attended the University of Kentucky and played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for head coach Blanton Collier. He played five positions for the Wildcats, including halfback, kick returner, wide receiver, and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

. He was chosen as Southeastern Conference (SEC) Sophomore of the Year in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

after leading the conference in receptions and receiving yards. He was a second-team All- SEC selection in 1959 and a first-team All-SEC selection as a senior in 1960. Bird led Kentucky in receiving and all-purpose yards in each of his three seasons playing for the team. His proudest achievement was beating Tennessee all three seasons. In 1958 and 1959 he scored every point Kentucky made against Tennessee. He played in three all-star games following his senior season and was the most valuable player of the All-American All-Star Game. In 1997 his No. 21 jersey was retired by Kentucky. In 2005, he was elected as a charter member into the University of Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame.

Pro football and later life

Bird was drafted in 1961 by the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League and the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

of the

, though he did not play for either team. He joined the

in the summer of 1963 as a wide receiver, but was cut by the team before the season and did not see any playing time. He married while a senior at Kentucky to Okeh Jean in 1960, and they remained together until his death 53 years later on June 19, 2013.

Family

Bird and his three brothers—Jerry, Rodger, and Billy—each played sports in high school and at the University of Kentucky.

Jerry Jerry may refer to: Animals * Jerry (Grand National winner), racehorse, winner of the 1840 Grand National * Jerry (St Leger winner), racehorse, winner of 1824 St Leger Stakes Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Jerry'' (film), a 2006 Indian fil ...

played basketball for Kentucky from 1954 to 1956, and his No. 22 jersey is retired by the Kentucky basketball team. Billy played football at Kentucky in the early 1960s. Rodger was a two-time All-SEC halfback for the Wildcats in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

and

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

and played three seasons in the AFL for the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

. His jersey was also retired by Kentucky.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bird, Calvin 1938 births 2013 deaths Kentucky Wildcats football players New York Jets players People from Corbin, Kentucky American football halfbacks American football wide receivers