Jim Mertens is a former

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 ...

wide receiver who was selected in 1969 by 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)'s

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

, and was also selected by the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

in the 1969 Major League Baseball Draft. Mertens played one season as a

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

for the Dolphins. He later became a high school teacher in the

Hollywood, Florida Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now ...

area.

Early life

He was born James Frederick Mertens in Cumberland, Maryland, United States, in 1947.

Football

Before being selected by the Miami Dolphins in 1969, Mertens attended college in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, where he was Fairmont State University's 1968 Football Team lead scorer, with 29 receptions for 509 yards and 54 points. He was a letterman for four years and a leading pass receiver on the School's NAIA Bowl Team.

Baseball

Mertens was a leading hitter on Fairmont State's College Baseball Team.

References

1947 births Living people American football wide receivers Fairmont State University alumni Miami Dolphins players Sportspeople from Cumberland, Maryland {{widereceiver-1940s-stub