Sid Blanks
No. 42, 22 | |||||||||||
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Position: | Running back | ||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||
Born: | Del Rio, Texas, U.S. | April 29, 1941||||||||||
Died: | December 12, 2021 Webster, Texas, U.S. | (aged 80)||||||||||
Height: | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||||
Weight: | 200 lb (91 kg) | ||||||||||
Career information | |||||||||||
High school: | San Felipe (Del Rio, TX) | ||||||||||
College: | Texas A&I | ||||||||||
NFL draft: | 1964 / Round: 3 / Pick: 42 | ||||||||||
AFL draft: | 1964 / Round: 5 / Pick: 38 | ||||||||||
Career history | |||||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
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Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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Player stats at NFL.com · PFR |
Sidney Blanks (April 29, 1941 – December 12, 2021) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He played college football for Texas A&I and was the first-ever black football player in the Lone Star Conference.[1]
College career
A halfback, Blanks played college football at Texas A&I University. Blanks was an All-American member of the Texas A&I Javelinas from 1960 to 1963. He was inducted into the Texas A&I Hall of Fame in 1981. In 2002 he was inducted into the Lone Star Conference Hall of Fame.
Recruited by College Football Hall of Fame coach Gil Steinke in 1960, Blanks was the first African American to play in the Lone Star Conference. He was also the first African American to receive a football scholarship at an integrated school in the state of Texas.
Professional career
Blanks played professionally in the
Blanks was an
Personal life and death
To honor a “hero, legend and trailblazer,” the city of Del Rio named a park after Blanks near San Felipe Creek in 2015.
Blanks' son,
He died in Webster, Texas, on December 12, 2021, at the age of 80.[3]
See also
References
- ^ "Out There: Park Honors Football Star". delrionewsherald.com/. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ Cavaliers: Front Office Archived 2012-09-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Texas football legend Sidney Blanks dies at 80". kvue.com. 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2021-12-22.