Claude B. Humphrey is a former 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...

 defensive lineman 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...

 for the Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

 and Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

.

Professional career

Humphrey was drafted

NFL Draft

The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...

 out of Tennessee State University

Tennessee State University

Tennessee State University is a land-grant university located in Nashville, Tennessee. TSU is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee.-History:...

 in the first round of the 1968 NFL Draft

1968 NFL Draft

The 1968 National Football League Draft was part of the Common Draft, in the second year in which the NFL and AFL held a joint draft of college players on January 30–31.-Player selections:-Round one:-Round two:-Round three:-Round four:...

 with the third overall choice by the Falcons. Humphrey was an All-American

1967 College Football All-America Team

The 1967 College Football All-America team is composed of various organizations that choose College All-America teams that season. The organizations that chose the teams were Associated Press, United Press International, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Central Press Association, Football Writers...

 in 1967.

Humphrey's stellar career included being named First-team All-Pro five times (1971-'74, and 1977), Second- Team All-Pro three times (1969, 1970, 1976), and All-NFC six times (1970-'74, 1977). He was Second-Team All-NFC in 1976 when Humphrey unofficially recorded a career high 15 quarterback sacks. In addition Humphrey was named to the Pro Bowl

Pro Bowl

In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...

 six times over the span of his career (1970-'74 & 1977).

Humphrey finished out his career with the Philadelphia Eagles from 1979-'81. In 1980 Humphrey enjoyed a stellar season as a designated pass rusher, recording a team high 14½ sacks helping the Eagles become NFC Champions and earn a ticket to Super Bowl XV

Super Bowl XV

Super Bowl XV was an American football game played on January 25, 1981 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1980 regular season...

. He finished his career with 126½ career sacks with the Falcons and Eagles.

Humphrey is a member of the Georgia Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Hall of Fame. His college (Tennessee State University) retired his number and inducted him into their Hall of Fame. His high school has also retired his jersey and he is a member of his high school Hall of Fame.

Humphrey is a member of Phi Beta Sigma

Phi Beta Sigma

Phi Beta Sigma is a predominantly African-American fraternity which was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students. The founders A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I...

.

Outside Football

Claude Humphrey also had a guest appearance on The Dukes of Hazzard

The Dukes of Hazzard

The Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985.The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.- Overview :The Dukes of Hazzard...

 episode "Repo Men"
in which he portrayed Big John, a counterfeiter.

Hall of fame candidacy

Humphrey was a final 15 candidate in 2003, 2005 and 2006. On August 27, 2008 he was named as one of two senior candidates for the 2009 Hall of Fame election.

External links

• Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
• Biography as a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame
  Pro Football Hall of Fame
  The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
  
   in 2006.
• Where Are They Now Story from 2006.