Ernie Jennings (born January 30, 1949) is a former

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 ...

wide receiver 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 ...

at the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Uni ...

and attended Kansas City Central High School in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

. He was drafted by the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

in the tenth round of the

1971 NFL Draft The 1971 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1971, at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City, New York. The Boston Patriots, who did not officially change their name to New England Patriots until after the draft, used th ...

. Jennings had originally joined the Air Force Falcons as a defensive back. He was a consensus All-American in All-American in 1970 and finished eighth in

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

voting after catching 74 passes for 1,289 yards. He also led NCAA Division I football in receiving touchdowns in 1970 with 17. He is Air Force's all-time leader in receptions with 148, 2nd in receiving yards with 2,392 and leads the team in receiving touchdowns with 28. Jennings was on the 2014 ballot for induction into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

but was not chosen. Jennings spent time in the military after college and was released by the San Francisco 49ers in August 1975. He then began a career at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

in 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Ernie Living people 1949 births Players of American football from Kansas American football wide receivers African-American players of American football Air Force Falcons football players All-American college football players People from Atchison, Kansas 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople