Frank James Buncom Jr. (November 2, 1939 – September 15, 1969) was an American professional

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 ...

player who was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

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). He played most of his career with 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 ...

and is member of the Chargers Hall of Fame.

College career

After graduating from Dorsey High School in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, Buncom attended junior college at

East Los Angeles College East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communiti ...

. He then played college football at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, where he lettered in the 1960 and 1961 seasons.

Professional career

Buncom played for seven seasons in the AFL with the

(

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

) and the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

(

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

). He was a three-time

AFL All-Star The American Football League All-Star game was the annual game which featured each year's best performers in the American Football League (AFL). The game was first played in 1961 and the final AFL All-Star game occurred in 1969, prior to the leagu ...

, 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 ...

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

. He was chosen by the Bengals in the 1968 AFL allocation draft for the expansion Bengals. He was a starting outside linebacker for the Bengals during their first-ever season. Buncom was slated to be a starter for the 1969 Bengals. On the morning of the Bengals' opening game of the

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

regular season, on September 14, his roommate,

Ernie Wright Ernest Henry Wright (November 6, 1939 – March 20, 2007) was an American professional football player who was an offensive tackle for 13 seasons, from 1960 to 1969 in the American Football League (AFL), and from 1970 to 1972 in the National ...

, was awakened to the sound of Buncom calling for him and gasping for breath. Neither Wright nor paramedics could save him. He was 29. The cause of death was determined to be a pulmonary embolism. He was survived by his wife Sarah, later a principal in the San Diego Unified School District, and seven-week-old son, Frank James Buncom III. His former team, the Chargers, as well as the Bengals, established trust funds for Buncom's son. When the San Diego Chargers announced their inaugural hall of fame class in 1976, Buncom was one of the four inductees. Ron Mix, a San Diego attorney and former teammate of Buncom's, said, "I remember Frank as being the best of us, and I'm talking about as a person with high character." His grandson, Frank Buncom IV, attended St. Augustine High School, where he was an outstanding defensive back as of 2014 being recruited by many Division I programs. On January 28, 2015, he signed to play at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buncom, Frank 1939 births 1969 deaths Players of American football from Shreveport, Louisiana American football linebackers USC Trojans football players San Diego Chargers players Cincinnati Bengals players American Football League All-Star players Deaths from pulmonary embolism American Football League players Susan Miller Dorsey High School alumni

College career

Professional career

See also

References