James Troy Archer (January 16, 1955 – June 22, 1979) 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 tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

who played three 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) for the

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. ...

. He began playing football at age six after his father forged his

birth certificate A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...

to show he was eight years old. He played football at California High School in Whittier, California where he was smaller in stature than would be expected from a professional football player. After high school, he grew significantly while playing

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 ...

at Rio Hondo College and the

University of Colorado, Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

. A resident of

Guttenberg, New Jersey Guttenberg ( ) is a town in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. In the 2010 Census, it was the most densely populated incorporated municipality in the United States, as well as one of the most densely populated mun ...

,Staff
"TROY ARCHER DIES; LINEMAN FOR GIANTS; Former Defensive End at Colorado Is Killed in Crash of a Truck in North Bergen, N.J."
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', June 23, 1979. Accessed April 17, 2016. Archer was killed in an auto accident during training camp.

References

1955 births 1979 deaths Players of American football from Glendale, California People from Guttenberg, New Jersey American football defensive tackles Colorado Buffaloes football players New York Giants players Road incident deaths in New Jersey {{defensive-lineman-1950s-stub