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James Richard "Jungle Jim" Martin (April 8, 1924 – October 9, 2002) was an American football guard, linebacker and placekicker who played fourteen seasons in the National Football League (NFL) in the 1950s and 1960s, mainly for the Detroit Lions. He was selected to the Pro Bowl, the NFL's all-star game, after the 1961 season, and went on to be an assistant coach after his playing career. He was an All-American at the University of Notre Dame and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995. Martin was a star athlete at his high school in Cleveland, Ohio. He joined the United States Marine Corps after graduating, and served in the Pacific War until it ended in 1945. He then enrolled at Notre Dame, where he was part of a teams that won the college football national championship in 1946, 1947 and 1949 under head coach Frank Leahy. Martin was named a first-team All-American in 1949 by several news organizations. The NFL's Cleveland Browns selected Martin in the 1950 draft, and he played there for one season during which the team won the NFL championship. Browns head coach Paul Brown traded him to the Detroit Lions, where he played between 1951 and 1961, at first as a guard and later as a linebacker and placekicker. The Lions won NFL championships in 1952, 1953 and 1957, all three of them victories over the Browns. After spending a year as an assistant coach for the Denver Broncos, an American Football League team, Martin returned to playing in 1963 for the Baltimore Colts, and played for a final year in 1964 for the Washington Redskins. When he left the Lions, Martin was the team's all-time leading field goal kicker; he also became the first NFL player to kick two field goals of more than 50 yards in a single game in 1960. Martin was an assistant high school coach in California and at Idaho State University before taking a job as an assistant with the Lions between 1967 and 1972. He also coached in the World Football League in the mid-1970s. Martin later worked as a court officer in Michigan. He was inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and into the college hall of fame in 1995. He died in 2002. ==Early life and college== Martin grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and attended the city's East Technical High School, where he was captain of the football and swimming teams. He played center on the football team.〔 After graduating, Martin joined the U.S. Marines during World War II, and served in the Pacific War.〔 He was part of a small crew in the Marines' Fifth Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion that landed on the island of Tinian in 1944 to do preliminary scouting in preparation for its seizure by Allied forces in the Battle of Tinian.〔 Wearing only black swim trunks, diving fins and face masks, Martin and his three-man unit discovered a string of sea mines near a beach where Allied forces were set to land, helping guide the invasion to safer landing places. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in the war. After the war ended in 1945, Martin returned to the U.S. and enrolled at the University of Notre Dame.〔〔 Coached by Frank Leahy, who had met and recruited Martin during the war on Iwo Jima, Notre Dame won the college football national championship by finishing first in the AP Poll in both 1946 and 1947.〔 Martin played as an end on the team, working on both offense and defense, and was nicknamed "Jungle Jim" because of his service in the jungles of the Pacific islands.〔〔 Notre Dame finished the 1948 season with a 9–0–1 win–loss–tie record and ranked second in the AP Poll.〔 Martin switched from end to left offensive and defensive tackle for the 1949 season, when Notre Dame again finished first in the polls and won a national championship.〔 Notre Dame did not lose a game during Martin's tenure, although it tied twice.〔〔 Martin, who was co-captain in 1949, was named a first-team All-American that year by the ''Associated Press'', the Newspaper Enterprise Association and the ''International News Service''.〔 He also boxed, and won Notre Dame's heavyweight title in 1949.〔 The following summer, he played in the College All-Star Game, a now-defunct contest between the National Football League (NFL) champion and a selection of the country's best college players. He also played in the East-West Shrine Game, another college all-star game.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jim Martin (American football)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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