James Thomas Gillette, Jr. (December 19, 1917January 9, 1990) was a 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 wi ...

halfback in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. Born in

Courtland, Virginia Courtland is an incorporated town in Southampton County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,295 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Southampton County. History Originally named "Jerusalem" by the first colonists to settle in ...

, he played for six seasons with the

Cleveland Rams The Cleveland Rams were a professional American football team that played in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945. The Rams competed in the second American Football League (AFL) for the 1936 season and the National Football League (NFL) from 1937 to 19 ...

(1940, 1944–1945), the

Boston Yanks The Boston Yanks were a National Football League team based in Boston, Massachusetts, that played from 1944 to 1948. The team played its home games at Fenway Park. Any games that conflicted with the Boston Red Sox baseball schedule in the Ameri ...

(1946), the Green Bay Packers (1947), and the Detroit Lions (1948). He was originally drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1940 but signed with the Cleveland Rams for six seasons before going back to Green Bay in 1946. In 1983, Gillette was inducted into the

Virginia Sports Hall of Fame The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame honors athletes, coaches, administrators, journalists and other contributors to athletics. Many of the more than 350 inductees since 1972 were born in Virginia or enjoyed success in college, professional, amateur or ...

. Gillette's son, Walker Gillette, also played in the NFL.

External links

* 1917 births 1990 deaths People from Courtland, Virginia Players of American football from Virginia American football halfbacks Virginia Cavaliers football players Cleveland Rams players Boston Yanks players Green Bay Packers players Detroit Lions players {{runningback-1910s-stub