Jim Taylor

• Born: September 20, 1935
• Birthplace: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Died: October 13, 2018
• Place of death: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Sport: Football

Early Life

Born on September 20, 1935, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to an invalid father who died an early death and a mother who toiled for low wages in the damp and steam of a laundry, James Charles Taylor spent most of his early years overcoming the obstacles that severe poverty placed in his way. “We were real poor,” Taylor remembered. “I must have pedaled my bike [delivering newspapers] a million miles.” As a young man, he worked as a “roughneck” for local oil companies, swinging a sledgehammer and stacking heavy pipes. All the hard work and intense conditioning paid off because it gave him the will to succeed and a body built to absorb punishment.

The Road to Excellence

At first, young Taylor’s body did not seem fit for any sport, much less for football, which he avoided until his junior year in high school. At 5 feet 9 inches tall and 155 pounds, he did not feel he was big enough to play the sport. One year later and 15 pounds heavier, he changed his mind. He also played basketball and became the first player from his school to make all-American teams in both sports.

In the fall of 1954, Taylor enrolled at Louisiana State University, where he played for Pop Strange, who called him “the finest freshman athlete I’ve ever seen.” However, the freshman’s performances in the classroom did not match his gridiron achievements, because he flunked out of LSU in 1955.

Not one to quit under adversity, Taylor transferred to Hinds Junior College, where he met his future wife, Dixie Grant, and raised his grades so that Paul Dietzel, whom he called “the Great White Father,” could welcome him back to LSU. In 1956, Dietzel allowed Taylor to languish on the bench for five games before starting him at fullback. Taylor immediately rewarded his coach by leading the Southern Conference in scoring that season with 59 points.

During his senior year, Taylor finished third in the nation in scoring with 86 points and made most all-American teams as the top fullback in the country. By this time, professional scouts were knocking at the young man’s door.

In 1958, the Green Bay Packers selected Taylor in the second round of the National Football League (NFL) draft. Taylor stood 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed about 215 pounds. Although not particularly impressive by NFL standards, years of lifting weights and performing isometric exercises gave him the strength of a young bull. He had a 19-inch neck and bulging, rock-hard thighs. Potential tacklers not impressed with his size before a game changed their minds during the contest.

The Emerging Champion

At first, Taylor’s professional career showed little promise. Coach Ray McLean kept him mostly on the bench. When he did play, it was on the “suicide teams” where players incurred more injuries. Like Dietzel, however, McLean saw Taylor’s potential toward the end of his first season. Too valuable to waste on the bench or risk during kickoffs, Taylor became the Packers’ starting fullback during the final two games, gaining 247 yards.

When Vince Lombardi became Green Bay’s coach in 1959, he needed a fullback to power the legendary Packer sweeps that carried the team to glory in the 1960s. All of Taylor’s years of hard work paid off. Pedaling his bike a “million miles,” swinging the heavy hammer, lifting oil pipe, and forcing himself to study hard served him well on his way to becoming a hall-of-fame, all-pro fullback.

The 1960s were glory years for Taylor as well as the Packers. After finishing fifteenth in rushing with 452 yards in 1959, Taylor led Green Bay to a Western Division title in 1960. Millions of fans watched Taylor stamp his imprint on professional football during the 1960 NFL Championship game, which the Packers lost to Philadelphia, 17–13. The game ended with Taylor plowing hard toward the goal, dragging Eagles with him, before he was brought to the turf by ’s game-saving tackle as time elapsed. Eight yards from the goal line, a new era had dawned.

The next season, 1961, Taylor led the Packers to an NFL Championship and finished second to Jim Brown in rushing with 1,307 yards. He enjoyed his best season in 1962, leading the league in three categories: 19 touchdowns—which set a then-NFL record—114 points, and 1,474 yards rushing. Taylor also supplied the needed power, grinding out 85 yards when freezing weather dictated a ground game in the Packers’ 16–7 championship victory over the New York Giants.

Continuing the Story

In 1963 and 1964, Taylor achieved his fourth and fifth consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. The Packers failed to win any titles, and some analysts thought Taylor had lost some of the toughness that characterized his earlier performances. Seven years of absorbing punishment by some of the NFL’s largest and meanest defenses had taken its toll, and even Taylor admitted that he no longer consistently “tried to run over the defenders.”

While Taylor’s rushing and scoring totals declined in his final two years, he still contributed stellar single-game performances as a “clutch” player. Sportswriters named him the most valuable player in Green Bay’s 23–12 championship victory over the Cleveland Browns in 1965. He led all rushers in the Packers’ 35–10 thrashing of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I.

Taylor’s last year in Green Bay brought him little happiness. The Packers signed two new running backs, Jim Grabowski and Donnie Anderson, for a million dollars in bonus money. When Taylor asked Lombardi, also the general manager, for a comparable raise, Lombardi denied the request. The two Packer greats parted company, and Taylor finished his career in New Orleans in 1967. While Louisiana gave him a rousing welcome, he must have known that, to millions of fans, his real home would always be Green Bay. Living in retirement and running a shipyard business, he made personal appearances from his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Along with Kristine Setting Clark, he published his autobiography, The Fire Within, in 2010.

Having suffered a stroke several years earlier and recovered, Taylor died at a hospital in Baton Rouge on October 13, 2018, at the age of eighty-three.

Summary

Very few players who participate in the violent world of professional football ever loved the contact more than Jim Taylor. Vince Lombardi called him “the most determined runner I’ve ever seen.” The man with the strength of a bull and the fearlessness of a tiger became one of history’s greatest fullbacks. In 1976, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Bibliography

Carroll, Bob. Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.

Goldstein, Richard. "Jim Taylor, Hall of Fame Fullback for the Green Bay Packers, Dies at 83." The New York Times, 13 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/13/obituaries/jim-taylor-dead.html. Accessed 31 July 2020.

McCullough, Bob. My Greatest Day in Football: The Legends of Football Recount Their Greatest Moments. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2002.

Mulé, Marty. Game of My Life: Memorable Stories of Tigers Football, LSU. Champaign, Ill.: Sports, 2006.