Guy Benjamin

Guy Emory Benjamin (born June 27, 1955 in Hollywood, California) is a retired American football quarterback who played six seasons in the National Football League.

College career

Benjamin played high school football at James Monroe High School in North Hills, California and enrolled at Stanford University in 1974. Initially, he shared starting duties with Mike Cordova, but he took over as full-time starter in 1976. In 1977, under coach Bill Walsh, Benjamin led Stanford to a 24-14 victory over LSU in the 1977 Sun Bowl. That season, Benjamin won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, awarded to the top passer in college football, and the W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy, awarded to the outstanding college football player on the Pacific Coast.

NFL career

Benjamin was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the second round of the 1978 NFL Draft. He played two seasons behind Bob Griese and Don Strock, then spent one season as Archie Manning's backup with the New Orleans Saints. He was reunited with Bill Walsh when he joined the San Francisco 49ers in 1981, where he earned a Super Bowl ring as Joe Montana's backup in Super Bowl XVI.

After football

After leaving football, Benjamin served as director of Athletes United for Peace, an organization founded by Olympic athletes after the United States' boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Benjamin founded the Sports in Society Institute at New College of California and directed the school's degree completion program for former student-athletes.^[1]

Benjamin lives in Hawaii, where he served as offensive coordinator for the University of Hawaii football team. In 1988, he was to be the head coach of the World Indoor Football League's Las Vegas Aces, but that league folded before launch, and the Aces' bid to join the Arena Football League were turned away; as such, the Aces never played. He also coached the Hawaii Hammerheads of the Indoor Professional Football League to the league championship in 1999, the team's only season. Benjamin then became the first head coach of the IPFL's Portland Prowlers before returning to Hawaii, where he coached the Hawaiian Islanders of the Arena Football League's minor league, af2.

Today, Benjamin is a director at Hawaii Medical Institute.^[2]

References