CFL status International Height 1.83 m Position(s) DE Weight 107 kg | Name Billy Booth Spouse Janice Schouest Role American football player Cfl all star 1969 | |
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Date of birth (1940-04-07)April 7, 1940 Place of birth Minden, Webster Parish,
Louisiana, USA Date of death June 30, 1972(1972-06-30) (aged 32) Place of death Dorchester, Ontario, Canada Died June 30, 1972, Dorchester, Ontario, Canada Education Minden High School, Louisiana State University | ||
Billy Joe Booth (April 7, 1940 – June 30, 1972) played professional football with the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League from 1962-1970. He graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Interesting fact, in the 1962 NFL draft, he was drafted by the New York Giants in round thirteen, draft number 181. After his football career, Booth was an electrical contractor for the IC Electric Supply Company. Booth was killed in 1972 in a plane crash in Ontario, Canada.
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Biography
Booth was born and reared in the small city of Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. His parents were Coy D. Booth (died 2004) and the former Fern Nation (1915-2001). He graduated in 1958 from Minden High School, where one of his football coaches was his maternal uncle, Patrick Cary Nation (1918-2005), and then in 1962 from LSU, at which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education. At Minden High School, Booth played football from 1954 to 1957. Booth won "All-State" and the "Outstanding Blocker" honours in 1956. He also played baseball in 1956 and ran track from 1955-1958. He was All-State in track in 1957. He was an elected member of the MHS Student Council in his senior year. At LSU, he played in the 1962 Senior Bowl.
Booth married the former Janice Mary Schouest (1941-1982 deceased), whom he met at LSU, and was the father of two sons, Mike Booth (born ca. 1963) and Coy Ulysses Booth (born ca. 1965 - since deceased, automobile accident victim).
CFL playing career
Booth was a defensive end for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League from 1962 to 1970. At six feet tall and 240 pounds, many had considered him too small to be a defensive end. Booth won Grey Cup championships in 1968 and 1969. The team also lost the 54th Grey Cup game in 1966. In 1969, Booth was named CFL all-star and was also won CFL's Most Outstanding Lineman Award in the eastern division of the CFL that year, but lost to defensive tackle John LaGrone of the Edmonton Eskimos.
Death
Booth and his friend, James W. Magee, Jr. (1938–1972), were killed in an airplane crash near Dorchester, Ontario. The two were in Canada on a fishing trip when their four-seat Piper Cherokee Arrow crashed during a thunderstorm. Witnesses said that the plane blew up and fell to the ground, with wreckage spread over an area of some one and one-half miles. The plane was en route from Windsor to London but crashed some ten miles (16 km) before reaching its destination.
Booth is interred at Westlawn Memorial Park in Gretna in Jefferson Parish.