Jim Braxton

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Jim Braxton (born in 1949 in the Pittsburgh suburb of Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania; died July 28, 1986, at the age of 37) was a professional football fullback for the Buffalo Bills.

Braxton entered his college tenture at West Virginia University in 1967 and became a native at WVU a year later in 1968. He was their second leading rusher with 272 yards in his sophomore season. In his junior season he rushed for a team best 843 yards for the Peach Bowl champions. He also was talented as a kicker and booted three field goals to be eighth in the national. As a senior he converted to tight end, catching 27 passes for 565 yards and eight touchdowns and that was good enough for first team All-American honors as a tight end.

Drafted in the third round by the Bills, he was needed not as the leading rusher, but the blocking weapon for O.J. Simpson. As Simpson remarks, most of his 11,236 career rushing yards were due to Braxton. In his 1975 season he rushed for 823 yards and nine touchdowns, which he considered his best season. In the 1976 season he ended it with a knee injury and played the 1977 season with the Bills, and then finished out his NFL career in 1978 with the Miami Dolphins, accounting for 31 touchdowns as a rusher and receiver.

Simpson gave these goodbye words to Braxton, for his death in 1986 of cancer, "I've lost a teammate; I've lost a dear friend. Bubby was my protector on the field, my companion off it. What he meant to my career is impossible to calculate, but I know many of the things I achieved wouldn't have been possible without him."