James Michael Leonard (January 2, 1899 – February 2, 1979) 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 ...

player. Leonard was born in 1899 in

Geneseo, New York Geneseo is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Livingston County, New York, Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, United States. It is at the south end of the five-county Rochester metropol ...

, and attended Geneseo High School. He served in the military during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He then enrolled at

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

and played college football at the tackle position for Colgate from 1920 to 1923. He was captain of the

1923 Colgate football team The 1923 Colgate football team was an American football team that represented Colgate University as an independent during the 1923 college football season. In its second season under head coach Dick Harlow, the team compiled a 6–2–1 record a ...

. Late in the 1923 season, Leonard joined the

Rochester Jeffersons The Rochester Jeffersons from Rochester, New York played from 1898 to 1925, including play in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925. History Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of t ...

of 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 ...

(NFL). He appeared in three NFL games at tackle for the Jeffersons. Leonard died in 1979 in

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Jim 1899 births 1979 deaths Rochester Jeffersons players People from Geneseo, New York Players of American football from New York (state)