Lenny Lyles (January 26, 1936 – November 20, 2011) was a professional

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 ...

who played 12 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 started in

Super Bowl III Super Bowl III was an American football game played on January 12, 1969 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. It was the third AFL–NFL Championship Game in professional American football, and the first to officially bear the trademark name "Su ...

for the Baltimore Colts. The 6–2, 202-pound Lyles was recruited by the University of Louisville in 1954, when he broke the school's color barrier for scholarship athletes. Lyles remains Louisville's all-time scoring leader for a non-kicker with 300 points. After a successful collegiate career, where Lyles was known for his return skills, he was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the first round of the 1958 NFL Draft. He spent one year with the Colts before joining the 49ers in 1959. After two seasons in San Francisco, Lyles returned to the Colts where he remained until the end of his career in 1969. Lyles finished his professional career with 2,161 return yards and averaged 26.7 yards per return. Lyles spent 27 years as an executive with

Brown & Williamson Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation was a U.S. tobacco company and a subsidiary of multinational British American Tobacco that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhanc ...

in Louisville.

References

1936 births 2011 deaths Players of American football from Louisville, Kentucky Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee American football defensive backs Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni Louisville Cardinals football players Baltimore Colts players San Francisco 49ers players Western Conference Pro Bowl players {{ULouisville-stub