Former Bears RB Steve Beaird Dies at 70
The Baylor football team announced the loss of one of their own, tweeting condolences for former running back Steve Beaird Sunday.
Remembering a member of the Baylor Family. pic.twitter.com/bNQdXrWmUp
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) July 24, 2022
Beaird played two seasons with the Bears after transferring in from Blinn College where he earned All-American honors at the junior college ranks in 1972. In 1973, he set the single-game rushing record for Baylor when he scored 176 yards on the ground in a loss to SMU.
Beaird broke out as a senior, putting together one of the greatest seasons ever by a Bears running back. In 1974, Beaird rushed for 1,104 yards on 276 carries and scored 16 total touchdowns, leading the Bears to the improbable 1974 Southwest Conference championship.
In that miraculous season, the Bears went from worst to first in the SWC to capture their first conference title in 50 years and Beaird's monster season was a huge reason why, as he became the first Bear ever to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season.
After building a stellar college career when Division I coaches didn't want him out of high school, Beaird took a similar approach to professional football. He was drafted in the seventh round of the 1975 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, but after a contract dispute, decided to play in the Canadian Football League.
Beaird played two seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL which included an all-star selection. He retired and owned Beaird Drilling in Fentress, Texas.
Beaird was inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.
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Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.