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Jim Taylor, the fierce Hall of Fame side who played the unstoppable Green Bay Packers ground game at the time of Vince Lombardi and helped the team win four NFL titles and the first Super Bowl, died October 13 in a hospital in his hometown of Baton Rouge. He was 83 years old.
The team confirmed the death. The cause was not immediately known.
Mr. Taylor played during the Great Packers Dynasty and was the most valuable player in the NFL in 1962. He scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history.
"He was a classic Lombardi team player and a key figure in these great championship races," said Packers president Mark Murphy.
Mr. Taylor was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1976. He spent 10 seasons in the NFL after being recruited to the second round of the University of Louisiana in 1958. He joined a field in the background featuring Paul Hornung and began to flourish Lombardi was named head coach in 1959.
"He taught me a lot of character, virtues and principles," said Taylor about Lombardi, with whom he sometimes engaged in quarrels, in an interview with the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 2001. "He established a football of caliber that he thought was a championship."
The Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, left, with Mr. Taylor in 1962. (DFS / AP)
Lombardi designed the Packers sweep, which included shooting guards Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston to clear the way for Taylor or Hornung. Mr. Taylor, 6 feet and 216 pounds, is the best example of the punitive effectiveness of the coin, a battlehorse always charging forward, causing potential tacklers.
In 1960, Mr. Taylor totaled 1,101 yards, overtaking Tony Canadé's 1,052-yard franchise in 1949. During the 1964 season, Taylor accumulated five consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and led the Packers to rush for seven consecutive years.
In 1961, he ran 1,307 yards and scored 15 touchdowns on the NFL. The Packers took a 37-0 win over the Giants for Lombardi's first NFL title as coach.
The following year was Taylor's best. He ran for 1,474 yards and 19 touchdowns in the league in 14 games and scored the only touchdown of the Packers 16-7 win over the New York Giants for the second of his four titles.
The 1962 title match between the Packers and the Giants, this time in New York, was played in 40-km / h winds and 13-degree temperatures at Yankee Stadium.
Taylor was at his best, scoring 85 yards in 31 races against the much-vaunted Giants defense with linebacker Sam Huff. Taylor suffered a nick in the elbow that required seven stitches at half-time and cut off his tongue during the match.
"If Taylor came up for a program, Huff was supposed to hit him. Kuffer told The Associated Press in 2008 that "wherever Taylor went, Huff accompanied him". I remember sitting next to Jimmy on the way back and that he was wearing his coat. He never removed it. He had it over his shoulder and the guy was shivering almost to the house. He has just been beaten by hell that day. "
The Packers won another NFL title in 1965 and Taylor finished his career in Green Bay after the 1966 season as the scorer in the franchise, with one-year scoring for affected. He also scored the first Super Bowl touchdown in the race, breaking a 7-7 tie with a 14-yard run in the second quarter. The Packers then defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the first league game between the NFL and the AFL.
But his distance fell sharply in 1966 and he was openly disgusted with the high wages paid to newcomers Donny Anderson and Jim Grabowski. Mr. Taylor played his last season in 1967 with the New Orleans Saints extension.
His team record of 1,474 rushing yards was defeated in 2003 by Ahman Green, who then established the brand for the career franchise in 2009.
James Charles Taylor was born on September 20, 1935 in Baton Rouge. Throughout his childhood, he worked to support his widowed mother.
At Louisiana State University, Mr. Taylor led the Southeastern Conference with 59 points in 1956. He was an all-American first team in 1957, when he shared the battlefield with half Billy Cannon, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1959. Cannon died in May.
"With the ball under his arm, Jimmy Taylor is the best player I've ever seen," said LSU coach Paul Dietzel one day.
Taylor retired to Baton Rouge and stayed close to the LSU football program. He was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1974. Survivor information was not immediately available.
Taylor was often compared to his contemporary, Jim Brown, of Cleveland Brown, but Lombardi had different points of view on two of the most difficult runners in the league at the time.
"Jim Brown will give you that leg (to tackle) and then take it away from you," Lombardi said. "Jim Taylor will give it to you and then pass it through your chest."
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