Byron Burk Gentry was a professional American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 guard

Guard (American football)

In American and Canadian football, a guard is a player that lines up between the center and the tackles on the offensive line of a football team....

 in the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

. He played three seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...

.

Gentry played college football at the University of Southern California where he was also a member of Phi Kappa Tau

Phi Kappa Tau

Phi Kappa Tau is a U.S. national collegiate fraternity.-History:Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity was founded in the Union Literary Society Hall of Miami University's Old Main Building in Oxford, Ohio on March 17, 1906...

 fraternity. At USC, he played on the 1931

1931 Rose Bowl

The 1931 Rose Bowl was the 17th Rose Bowl game, an American post-season college football game that was played on New Year's Day 1931 in Pasadena, California. It featured two undefeated teams, the Alabama Crimson Tide against the...

 and 1932 Rose Bowl

1932 Rose Bowl

The 1932 Rose Bowl was the 18th Rose Bowl game, an American post-season college football game that was played on New Year's Day 1932 in Pasadena, California. It featured the against the USC Trojans...

 championship teams. He was a decorated soldier, serving as an intelligence officer in World War II and later was national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars

Veterans of Foreign Wars

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is a congressionally chartered war veterans organization in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, VFW currently has 1.5 million members belonging to 7,644 posts, and is the largest American organization of combat...

. Gentry's post-football career was in the law and he was city attorney of Pasadena, California

Pasadena, California

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

for sixteen years. He was also a published writer and poet.