Larry Grantham
James Larry Grantham was an American collegiate and professional football player.Biography
A member of the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame, he was a linebacker at 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. Therein Grantham's team, with him as a starter throughout, went from being the worst team in an upstart league to World Champions in just nine years.
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 to have competed in the American Football League for its entire ten-year existence, and one of only seven AFL players to have 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.
The Professional Football Researchers Association named Grantham to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2014Death
Grantham died on June 17, 2017 from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 78.
