Roy Lee Jefferson (born November 9, 1943) 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 ...

player, a wide receiver 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 ...

for twelve seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Colts, and

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. During 162

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

games, he had 451 receptions for 7,539 yards and 52 touchdowns.

Early years

Born in Texarkana,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

, Jefferson grew up in southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and graduated from

Compton High School Compton High School is a high school in Compton, California, United States, part of the Compton Unified School District. History The school opened in 1896 as Compton Union High School and was later re-established as Compton Senior High School i ...

in 1961. He played college football at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, where he was named the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

Player of the Year in his senior season in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

under head coach Ray Nagel. Jefferson played on both sides of the ball and also was the placekicker; and led the Utes to 32–6 victory in the

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

over favored

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 B ...

to finish with a 9–2 record. The game was played indoors on natural grass at the convention center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and featured shortened end zones.

Playing career

Selected in the second round of the

1965 NFL draft The 1965 National Football League draft was held at the Summit Hotel in New York City on Saturday, November 28, 1964. The first player selected was Tucker Frederickson, back from Auburn, by the New York Giants. The draft was marked by the fail ...

, 18th overall, Jefferson spent his first five NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1965–1969). In

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

, Jefferson led the NFL in receiving yards with 1,074. His 58 receptions and 11 touchdowns were both 2nd highest in the NFL that season. He was named 1st Team

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

(AP), the

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary news ...

(NEA), New York Daily News and

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

in 1969. Jefferson finished that season with 67 receptions for 1,079 yards and nine touchdowns and became the first Steelers receiver to post back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. Despite being the Steelers' best offensive player, conflicts with head coach

Chuck Noll Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer * C ...

as the team's player representative resulted in a trade to the Baltimore Colts for Willie Richardson and a 1971 fourth-round selection (104th overall– Dwight White) in an exchange of receivers who had fallen out of favor with their old teams on August 20,

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 ...

. With the Colts for only one season, Jefferson helped them reach and win

Super Bowl V Super Bowl V was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

. He finished the

regular season with 44 receptions for 749 yards and seven touchdowns. He caught a 45-yard touchdown pass from Johnny Unitas in the Colts 17–0 divisional playoff win over the Cincinnati Bengals and had three receptions for 52 yards in the Colts 16–13 victory over the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

in the Super Bowl. A contract dispute with the Colts ended with Jefferson being dealt along with ninth-round draft picks in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

(218th overall– Rick Galbos) and 1974 (213th overall–traded to Los Angeles Rams for Joe Sweet) to the

for Cotton Speyrer and a 1973 first-rounder (25th overall–traded to San Diego Chargers for

Marty Domres Martin Francis Domres ( ; born April 17, 1947) is a former American collegiate and professional football player. From Columbia University, he was drafted in the first round of the Common Draft as a quarterback by the American Football League ( ...

) on July 31, 1971. He spent six seasons with the Redskins under head coach

George Allen George Allen may refer to: Politics and law * George E. Allen (1896–1973), American political operative and one-time head coach of the Cumberland University football team * George Allen (Australian politician) (1800–1877), Mayor of Sydney and ...

, helping them reach Super Bowl VII in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, and retired after the

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

season. Jefferson was named to the Pittsburgh Steelers Legends team in 2007, as one of the best 24 Steelers players prior to 1970.

After football

After his retirement from football, Jefferson has remained in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

area. He had a leading role in the

blaxploitation feature film '' Brotherhood of Death''. In the ensuing years, his endeavors have included owning a chain of barbecue restaurants with the last closing in 1992 and owning a

catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major services be ...

business. As of 2006, he was working in the

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

business. He reported that he and his wife, had three children and four grandchildren.Wexell, Jim. ''Pittsburgh Steelers: Men of Steel'' (

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metro ...

: Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2006) , pp. 69-73

Personal life

Jefferson is the cousin of tight end Marv Fleming; they were teammates in high school and college, but were on opposing sides during Super Bowl VII. Jefferson left Utah for the NFL in 1965, but returned to school in the off-seasons and completed his bachelor's degree in June 1970.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jefferson, Roy 1943 births Living people People from Texarkana, Arkansas American football wide receivers Utah Utes football players Pittsburgh Steelers players Baltimore Colts players Washington Redskins players Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players National Conference Pro Bowl players National Football League announcers