Donnie Ray Oldham (February 23, 1951 – July 23, 2005) 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 ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

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 professionally for the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

, and

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

Biography

Oldham was born in

Gallatin, Tennessee Gallatin is a city in and the county seat of Sumner County, Tennessee. The population was 30,278 at the 2010 census and 44,431 at the 2020 census. Named for United States Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, the city was established on ...

and graduated from Gallatin High School in Gallatin. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight undergraduate colleges as well as a college of graduate studies, together off ...

Murfreesboro, Tennessee Murfreesboro is a city in and county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 152,769 according to the 2020 census, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010. Murfreesboro is located in the Nashville metropol ...

. Oldham was drafted by the

Baltimore Colts (1953–1983) The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breedi ...

in the 8th round (189th overall) of the 1973 NFL Draft. He played for ten seasons in the NFL. He earned a Super Bowl ring in 1978 when he was part of the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. In 1983 Oldham was inducted into the Blue Raider Hall of Fame at Middle Tennessee State University. He died on July 23, 2005 in

Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee Soddy-Daisy is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 13,070 at the 2020 census and estimated to be 13,619 in 2022. The city was formed in 1969 when the communities of Soddy (to the north) and Daisy (to the sout ...

after suffering a heart attack while on a bike ride.Crawlew, Stan
"Former NFL Player Ray Oldham Dies Of Apparent Heart Attack."
The Chattanoogan. 25 July 2005. Retrieved on 15 January 2008.

References

External links

*

NFL Enterprises LLC

Blue Raider Hall of Fame

* ttps://archive.today/20130209012208/http://www.wate.com/story/3638419/ray-oldham-dead-at-age-54?clienttype=printable WATE.com: Ray Oldham dead at age 54 {{DEFAULTSORT:Oldham, Ray 1951 births 2005 deaths Players of American football from Tennessee American football cornerbacks American football safeties Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football players Baltimore Colts players Pittsburgh Steelers players New York Giants players Detroit Lions players