Seymour ranks sixth in school history with 138 career catches.

All-America Wide Receiver Jim Seymour Passes Away

March 30, 2011

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Jim Seymour, a record-setting wide receiver and football All-American at the University of Notre Dame in the 1960s, died Tuesday night at Highland Park Hospital in HighlandPark, Ill., after a battle with cancer. He was 64.

When he graduated in 1969, Seymour qualified as Notre Dame’s all-time leading career receiver – with 138 catches for 2,113 yards and 16 touchdowns in his three-year varsity career from 1966-68. He was listed on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot for 2011.

He paced the Irish with 53 catches as a senior in ’68 for 736 yards and four TDs. As a sophomore in ’66 on Notre Dame’s national championship team he grabbed 48 throws for 862 yards and eight TDs. As a junior in ’67 he made 37 receptions for 515 yards and four TDs.

As a senior in ’68 he earned first-team All-America honors from United Press International, the American Football Coaches Association, the Walter Camp Foundation and The Sporting News. He received second-team recognition from Associated Press.

As a junior in ’67 UPI named him a first-team All-American. As a sophomore in ’66, Football News named him to its first-team All-America squad – while UPI and Newspaper Enterprise Association made him a second-team selection and AP and The Sporting News named him to their third teams.

Seymour joined with classmate and quarterback Terry Hanratty to form the pass-throwing and -catching battery known fondly as “Mr. Fling and Mr. Cling.” As sophomores they appeared together on the cover of TIME magazine.

A 6-4, 205-pounder originally from Berkley, Mich., Seymour joined Hanratty and their teammates and compiled a combined three-year mark of 24-4-2 from 1966-68. In the final AP poll, the Irish finished first in ’66 at 9-0-1, fifth in `’67 at 8-2 and fifth again in ’68 at 7-2-1. He led the Irish in receiving in each of his three seasons.

Seymour today ranks sixth on Notre Dame’s career chart for receptions. He remains the Notre Dame career leader in receptions per game (138 in 26 games for 5.3 per game). He also set the Notre Dame single-game record (that still stands) with 276 receiving yards (on 13 receptions and good forthree TDs) against Purdue in 1966.

Seymour played in the College All-Star Game and Hula Bowl after his senior year and was a 1969 first-round NFL draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams. He spent three seasons in the NFL, all with the Chicago Bears, catching 21 career passes for 385 yards.

Born Nov. 24, 1946, James Patrick Seymour was active with the Notre Dame Monogram Club, serving on its board of directors from 2001-04, and serving as part of the staff for the Notre Dame football fantasy camp.

He is survived by his wife, the former Nancy Garvey (a South Bend native), and their sons Jim Jr. (a ’92 Notre Dame graduate), Jeff and Todd. Seymour had been in the insurance business and lived in Deerfield, Ill.

Visitation is noon-7 p.m., Sunday at Kelley & Spalding Funeral Home, 1787 Deerfield Road in Highland Park. Funeral services are at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 724 Elder Lane in Deerfield.