WHITE, BYRON R.

born June 8, 1917, Fort Collins, Colo., U.S. in full Byron Raymond White associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (196293). Before taking up the study of law in 1940, White achieved a national reputation as a quarterback on the University of Colorado football team and played for one season with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Steelers). After a year at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, Whizzer White played two seasons with the Detroit Lions while attending Yale Law School. White served for a year as law clerk to Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson before joining a law firm in Denver. In 1960 he was active in the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, an old friend, and in 1961 was made assistant attorney general under the president's brother Robert Kennedy. In 1962 President Kennedy appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite his liberal political background, White's role on the court was generally described as moderate or relatively conservative.