Jim Thomas (running back)

Biography

James T. "Long Gone" Thomas (December 18, 1938 – October 4, 2015) was an American gridiron football player and coach. He played professionally as a running back for nine seasons in the Canadian Football League CFL) with the Edmonton Eskimos. Thomas ran for 6,161 yards in his CFL career and was a two-time CFL All-Star. He signed to the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL) in 1970 for a five-game trial, but returned to Edmonton. Thomas holds the record for the three longest rushing touchdowns in Eskimos history—a 104-yard run on October 9, 1965, against the BC Lions, a 100-yard run on August 2, 1966, against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and a 97-yard run on September 4, 1964, against the Ottawa Rough Riders. Thomas attended R. E. Hunt High School in Columbus, Mississippi, a segregated school for blacks only. He attended college at Mississippi Industrial College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

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