Kenny Parker (born July 22, 1946) 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 wi ...

defensive back who played 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).

Early life and high school

Parker was born and grew up in Paterson, New Jersey and attended Eastside High School. He played basketball and football and was named first-team All-Passaic Valley Conference at quarterback as a senior.

College basketball career

Parker played basketball at Fordham, which did not have a college football team at the time. Parker played under head coach

Johnny Bach John William Bach (July 10, 1924 – January 18, 2016) was an American professional basketball player and coach. A forward/ guard, Bach played college basketball at Fordham University and Brown University. He was selected by the Boston Celt ...

and was a starter at guard. He named the Rams captain as a senior and was an Academic All-America selection. Parker averaged 4.9 points over 77 games during his collegiate basketball career.

Professional career

Despite not having played football since high school, Parker was selected in the 16th round of the

1968 NFL/AFL Draft The 1968 National Football League draft was part of the common draft, in the second year in which the NFL and AFL held a joint draft of college players. It took place at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City on January 30–31, 1968. The Min ...

by the New York Giants. He suffered a season-ending injury during the 1968 preseason and spent 1969 on the practice squad. Parker made the Giants active roster in 1970, and eventually became a starter at cornerback due to injuries. Parker was cut at the end of training camp in 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Kenny 1946 births American football defensive backs Fordham Rams men's basketball players Players of American football from Paterson, New Jersey New York Giants players Eastside High School (Paterson, New Jersey) alumni Basketball players from Paterson, New Jersey Living people