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| Position: | Safety | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born: | November 12, 1953 Terrell, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight: | 190 lb (86 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| College: | East Texas | ||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1975 / Round: 12 / Pick: 311 | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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| Player stats at NFL.com · PFR | |||||||||||
Autry Beamon Jr. (born November 12, 1953) is a former professional American football safety who played for three National Football League (NFL) teams.
Beamon played college football at East Texas State University, now Texas A&M University-Commerce, and is in the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame.[1] The Hall of Fame citation says that at age 16 he was the youngest college player in the country in 1970.[2]
He is still the only player in his college’s history to be a four-time first team All-Lone Star Conference selection.[3]
He is in both the Lone Star Conference Hall of Honor and the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame.[4]
In the 1975 NFL draft the Minnesota Vikings chose Beamon in the 12th round (draft pick 311 overall).[5] He was on the Vikings team that played in Super Bowl XI, losing to the then Oakland Raiders in January 1977.[6]
In the course of his seven-year NFL career Beamon made 13 interceptions for 132 yards including a career best six picks in the 1977 season for the Seattle Seahawks.[7] The following season he had four interceptions for the Seahawks.[8] Only two players in the NFL — Rolland Lawrence of the Atlanta Falcons and Mario Clark of the Buffalo Bills — had more interceptions in each of those two seasons, 1977 and 1978.[9][10]
Beamon had at least one fumble recovery in all but one of his seven NFL seasons for a career total of eight: three for the Vikings, three for the Seahawks and two for the Browns.[11]
In 1977 Beamon scored his only NFL touchdown, returning a blocked punt in a Seahawks home game against the Baltimore Colts.[12][13][14] His only other points in the NFL also came from a blocked punt for the Vikings in a home game against the New York Jets in 1975, resulting in a 2-point safety.[15][16][17]
In both the 1978 and 1979 seasons he was the special teams captain for the Seahawks.[18]