Jim Dunaway
No. 78 | |||
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Position: | Defensive Tackle | ||
Personal information | |||
Date of birth: | September 3, 1941 | ||
Place of birth: | Columbia, Mississippi | ||
Height: | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||
Weight: | 277 lb (126 kg) | ||
Career information | |||
High school: | Columbia (MS) | ||
College: | Mississippi | ||
NFL Draft: | 1963 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3 | ||
AFL draft: | 1963 / Round: 2 / Pick: 9 | ||
Career history | |||
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Career highlights and awards | |||
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Career NFL statistics | |||
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Player stats at PFR |
James Kenneth Dunaway (born September 3, 1941) was an American football player. A defensive tackle, he played college football at the University of Mississippi, and played professionally in the American Football League for the Buffalo Bills, as part of a defensive line that held opposing runners without a rushing touchdown for a pro football record seventeen consecutive games in the 1964 and 1965 AFL seasons.
Murder charge and aftermath
In 1998, Dunaway's ex-wife, Nonniel Dunaway, was found dead in a half-empty swimming pool. An autopsy revealed that she had a fractured skull and was unconscious when she was placed in the water by her assailant where she drowned. Prior to this event, she had won a divorce judgment which gave her more than 800 acres (3.2 km2) of property that the couple owned, $1800 a month in alimony and half of Dunaway's NFL pension. They had been divorced since 1995 and Dunaway was planning to appeal.
Dunaway was charged with her murder but a grand jury chose not to indict Dunaway of the charges. In response, his children filed a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging that Dunaway was responsible for their mother's death. In 2002, Dunaway was found liable and ordered to pay $579,000 to his children.
Coincidentally, Dunaway had been a teammate for three seasons of star running back O. J. Simpson, who was similarly found responsible for his ex-wife's death after being acquitted of her murder in a controversial trial in 1995.
See also
- Comedy site names Dunaway a member of the "All-Criminal Team"