| Jim Dunaway | |
| Number: | 78 |
| Position: | Defensive tackle |
| Birth Date: | 3 September 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Columbia, Mississippi, U.S. |
| High School: | Columbia (MS) |
| Height Ft: | 6 |
| Height In: | 4 |
| Weight Lbs: | 277 |
| College: | Ole Miss |
| Draftyear: | 1963 |
| Draftround: | 1 |
| Draftpick: | 3 |
| Afldraftyear: | 1963 |
| Afldraftround: | 2 |
| Afldraftpick: | 9 |
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| Highlights: |
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| Pfr: | DunaJi00 |
James Kenneth Dunaway (September 3, 1941 – May 12, 2018) 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 (AFL) 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.[1]
On July 27, 1998, Dunaway's ex-wife, Nonniel Dunaway, was found dead in a half-empty swimming pool.[2] 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 800acres of property that the couple owned, $1,800 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.[3] In response, his children filed a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging that Dunaway was responsible for their mother's death.[4] In 2002, Dunaway was found liable and ordered to pay $579,000 to his children.[5]
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.