John James Charles (May 9, 1944 – June 16, 2019) 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 wi ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

and

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly dif ...

who played eight seasons 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 ...

(NFL). He played college football at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

where he was an All-American in 1966 and the Rose Bowl MVP in leading the

Boilermakers A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steel, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dep ...

over USC on January 2. Charles prepped at Linden High School in Linden, New Jersey. He was inducted into the Purdue Intercollegiate Athletic Hall of Fame on April 18, 2015. Charles was a first round selection in the

1967 NFL/AFL Draft The 1967 National Football League draft was conducted March 14–15, 1967, at the Gotham Hotel in New York City. It was the first common draft with the AFL, part of the AFL–NFL merger agreement of June 1966. This draft was delayed as new guide ...

, taken by the Boston Patriots. In early October

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, he was sent to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

as compensation after Boston signed quarterback

Joe Kapp Joseph Robert Kapp (born March 19, 1938) is an American former football player, coach, and executive. He played college football as a quarterback at the University of California, Berkeley. Kapp played professionally in the Canadian Football Lea ...

. He played for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

from 1971 through 1974. Charles died in Houston at age 76 in 2019.John James Charles
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* 1944 births 2019 deaths Linden High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Linden, New Jersey Sportspeople from Union County, New Jersey American football defensive backs Purdue Boilermakers football players Boston Patriots players Minnesota Vikings players Houston Oilers players Players of American football from Newark, New Jersey American Football League players {{defensiveback-1940s-stub