Anthony Guillory (November 10, 1942 – July 27, 2021) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) from 1965 through 1969. He attended the black

Hebert High School Hebert High School was a traditionally black high school in the South Park Independent School District in Beaumont, Texas, US. It was founded in the early 20th century to serve the black community, and became an accredited high school in 1923. In ...

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (city ...

, and played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

and then at Lamar State College of Technology (now

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas, United States. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the ...

). Transferring from Nebraska to Lamar in 1962, Guillory became the first black athlete at Lamar. He was one of 16 pro footballers given the keys to the city of Beaumont in 1971. He died on July 27, 2021, in

, at age 78.

References

1942 births 2021 deaths American football linebackers Lamar Cardinals football players Los Angeles Rams players Nebraska Cornhuskers football players Philadelphia Eagles players Players of American football from Beaumont, Texas People from Opelousas, Louisiana Sportspeople from St. Landry Parish, Louisiana 20th-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen {{Linebacker-1940s-stub