Former CFL star Ray Nettles dies at 60

Former Canadian Football League star Ray Nettles has died from liver and lung cancer at age 60, his wife said.

Nettles, who was a member of the CFL Hall of Fame, starred at linebacker for the University of Tennessee and went on to play nine seasons with five different CFL teams, died Tuesday at a hospice in Jacksonville, Fla., The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union reported.

Nettles, a Florida prep football standout, played over half his pro career, from 1972 to 1976, with the British Columbia Lions in Vancouver, where he won the Schenley Award as the league’s top lineman/linebacker and was a three-time CFL All-Star, the newspaper said.

After that, Nettles became the defensive MVP with both the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was a sixth-round 1972 draft choice by the Miami Dolphins but turned down a $5,000 bonus to join the CFL, reportedly because he didn’t want to warm the bench in favor of Nick Buoniconti on the Dolphins’ legendary two-time Super Bowl-winning team.

The Times-Union said he is survived by his wife Bonnie, along with three sisters, Anne Cummins, Adele Smith and Connie Elliott, and a brother, Gregory, all residents of Jacksonville or St. Augustine, Fla.