Tommy Trantham, a three-time All-Southwest Conference defensive back whose 77-yard fumble return helped the Arkansas football team beat top-ranked Texas in 1965, died Sunday in Little Rock. He was 79.
Trantham had been suffering with Parkinson’s Disease and was admitted to St. Vincent Hospital in Little Rock on Saturday.
A graduate of Little Rock Central High School, Trantham redshirted on the Razorbacks’ 1964 national championship team and traveled to all the away games as an emergency player, said Jerry Welch, his classmate in high school and at Arkansas. Trantham lettered for the Razorbacks from 1965-67 on teams that had a combined record of 22-8-1.