George Edward "Butch" Byrd (born September 20, 1941) is a former professional
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
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 started his career playing
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 ...
at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
. He joined the
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...
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 immediately made an impact in the defensive backfield, with seven interceptions. Byrd was also a
punt returner
A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...
for his entire career.
Byrd holds the Bills' career records for interceptions (40), interception return yards (666) and interceptions returned for touchdowns (5). He was a five-time
American Football League All-Star, and was selected for the second-team,
All-Time All-AFL. Byrd is a 1980 inductee of the Boston University Hall of Fame, LaSalle Institute Athletic Hall of Fame, Albany Capital District Hall of Fame, named to the All-Time Buffalo Bills Silver Anniversary Team in 1984, and in 2008 was selected to the
Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality
* ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
* "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014
*Greater Bank, an Australian ...
.
See also
*
List of American Football League players
The following is a list of men who played for the American Football League (AFL, 1960–1969).
Players
A
B
C
D
Elbert Dubenion
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
Z
Notes
Player notes
1,398 ...
References
External links
Byrd's citation on the Boston University Hall of Fame site
1941 births
Living people
People from Watervliet, New York
American football cornerbacks
American football safeties
American football return specialists
Boston University Terriers football players
Buffalo Bills players
Denver Broncos players
American Football League All-Star players
American Football League All-Time Team
American Football League players
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