![]() Jim Fordham, 1939 | |||||||||||||
No. 3 | |||||||||||||
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Position: | Fullback | ||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||
Born: | (1916-12-06)December 6, 1916 Candler County, Georgia, U.S. | ||||||||||||
Died: | April 5, 1969(1969-04-05) (aged 52) Monterrey,Mexico | ||||||||||||
Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||||||
Weight: | 215 lb (98 kg) | ||||||||||||
Career information | |||||||||||||
High school: | Swainsboro (Swainsboro, Georgia) | ||||||||||||
College: | Georgia | ||||||||||||
NFL draft: | 1940: 8th round, 67th pick | ||||||||||||
Career history | |||||||||||||
Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
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James Edward Fordham (December 6, 1916 – April 15, 1969) was anAmerican football player.
Fordham was born in 1916 inCandler County, Georgia. He attended theUniversity of Georgia where he playedcollege football for theGeorgia Bulldogs from 1937 to 1939. He played under three head coaches (Harry Mehre,Joel Hunt, andWally Butts) in his three years at Georgia and started on the1938 and1939 Georgia teams that compiled records of 5–4–1 and 5–6.[1][2][3][4] He was selected to play in the 1939Blue–Gray Football Classic.[5]
Fordham also played professional football in theNational Football League (NFL) for theChicago Bears from 1944 to 1945. He was drafted in the eighth round of the1940 NFL draft.[6] In 1944, he ranked among the NFL league leaders with 381 rushing yards (ninth), 5.2 rushing yards per attempt (fifth) and 38.1 rushing yards per game (tenth).[7][8]
Fordham later lived inVenezuela where he worked for a tobacco company. He subsequently moved toMonterrey,Mexico, where he operated a cigarette factory. He died from a heart attack in Monterrey in April 1969 at age 52.[9][10]