James Zachery (August 27, 1958 – January 25, 1994) was an

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 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 ...

who played eight seasons in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

Montreal Concordes The Montreal Alouettes ( French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Cana ...

and

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

. He was drafted by the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

in the eleventh round of the

1980 NFL Draft The 1980 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1980, at the New York She ...

. He 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 ...

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

and attended Midland High School in

Midland, Texas Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States. A small part of Midland is in Martin County. At the 2020 census, Midland's population was 132,524. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas metropolitan ...

. Zachery was a member of the Edmonton Eskimos team that won the

75th Grey Cup The 75th Grey Cup was the 1987 Canadian Football League championship game that was played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Toronto Argonauts. The Eskimos defeated the Argonauts 38–36, on Jerry Kauric's last ...

. He was also a CFL West All-Star in 1986. Zachery died on January 25, 1994, after he was the victim of a gang attack. 17-year-old De-Vann Stewart was initially charged with Zachary's murder. Stewart was later sentenced to 20 years on a manslaughter conviction and a second defendant, Don Jackson, was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

References

External links

Just Sports StatsFanbase profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zachery, James 1958 births 1994 deaths American football defensive ends Canadian football defensive linemen African-American players of American football African-American players of Canadian football Texas A&M Aggies football players Montreal Alouettes players Montreal Concordes players Edmonton Elks players People murdered in Texas American murder victims People murdered by American organized crime Players of American football from Midland, Texas 20th-century African-American sportspeople

See also

References

External links