Isaac "Ike" Thomas Lassiter (November 15, 1940 – February 15, 2015) was an American college and

professional football In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

. He is an alumnus of St. Augustine's College in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

, where he received a bachelor's degree in physical education. Lassiter played professionally for 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. ...

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

and the AFL's

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

, where he was an

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 ...

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

. He played as the starting left defensive end in

Super Bowl II The second AFL-NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super Bowl II) was an American football game played on January 14, 1968, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. The National Football League (NFL)'s defending champion Green Bay P ...

for the 1967 Raiders. In the 1967 regular season on a Raiders team with a won-lost record of 13–1, he was one of the main pass-rushers of a front four including

Dan Birdwell Dan Birdwell (October 14, 1940 – February 14, 1978) was an American college and professional football player. A defensive lineman, he played collegiately for the University of Houston and professionally for the Oakland Raiders of the American ...

Tom Keating Thomas Patrick Keating (1 March 1917 – 12 February 1984) was an English art restorer and famous art forger who claimed to have faked more than 2,000 paintings by over 100 different artists. The total estimated of the profits of his forgeries ...

, and

Ben Davidson Benjamin Earl Davidson (June 14, 1940 – July 2, 2012) was an American football player, a defensive end best known for his play with the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League (AFL). Earlier in his career, he was with the Green Bay ...

with a combined league-leading total of 67 sacks and 665 yards lost, the latter an all-time record, the all-time record for sacks being 72, done in a 16-game season, the Raiders leading the league in sacks from 1966 to 1968, an all-time record. He ended his NFL career with the Boston / New England Patriots in 1970 and 1971. Lassiter was traded to the Washington Redskins in 1972, but did not make the team. He sat out the next two seasons, but played for the Jacksonville Sharks in 1974 in the World Football League. He retired to Oakland, California and died on February 15, 2015.

References

1940 births 2015 deaths Boston Patriots players Denver Broncos (AFL) players New England Patriots players Oakland Raiders players Jacksonville Sharks (WFL) players St. Augustine's Falcons football players American Football League All-Star players People from Wilson, North Carolina American Football League players {{defensive-lineman-1940s-stub

See also

References