{"id":52130,"date":"2026-01-04T02:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52130"},"modified":"2026-01-04T02:03:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:03:18","slug":"eagles-legend-billy-ray-barnes-member-of-1960-championship-team-dead-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52130","title":{"rendered":"Eagles legend Billy Ray Barnes, member of 1960 championship team, dead at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Billy Ray Barnes, a Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> legend, died at age 90 Wednesday, the team announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eagles released a statement Friday night saying Barnes died in Landis, North Carolina,<\/a> surrounded by his family and friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He was 90 and had a fabulous life,” Barnes\u2019 daughter, Billi Barnes Akins, said in the Eagles\u2019 announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philadelphia Eagles legend Billy Ray Barnes died at age 90. (Philadelphia Eagles)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnes was the team\u2019s second-round pick in the 1957 NFL Draft out of Wake Forest, and he was a key member of the Eagles\u2019 1960 championship team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his career, he earned three Pro Bowl honors in his five seasons with the franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One of the things that he loved about the Eagles is, in that championship game, they were the underdogs,” Akins added. “Dad always liked being the underdog. He said it made him tougher, made him stronger, made him play harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He said the only thing that allowed them to win was their team. They were a team that was really tight and believed in each other.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnes was a major contributor to that championship team\u2019s offense, leading the team in rushing and receiving as a halfback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his five seasons in Philadelphia, Barnes rushed for 2,391 yards with 20 touchdowns, while hauling in 120 passes for 1,275 yards with eight scores through the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Philadelphia Eagles helmet during a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium Aug. 9, 2024, in Baltimore.  (G Fiume\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The fondest memory of everything up there is the fans,” Barnes said in the 2021 feature, “Where Are They Now?” “I played there for five years, but I lived there year-round for about eight years. The people were just great to me in Philadelphia.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his time in Philadelphia, Barnes played two seasons each with the Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Redskins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, after his playing days, Barnes served as an assistant coach for the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eagles had Barnes and his teammates return to Philadelphia for their 50-year reunion of the 1960 championship during the 2010 campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He never realized how people thought of these guys as the greatest ever,” Akins recalled. “People you wouldn\u2019t even know would just call him and reach out to him.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bundle FOX One and FOX Nation to stream the entire FOX Nation library, plus live FOX News, Sports and Entertainment at our lowest price of the year. The offer ends on Jan. 4, 2026. (Fox One; Fox Nation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The biggest thing was the friendships that he had made there. They were lifelong. He talks to a bunch of guys on the phone for years. He enjoyed everything about Philadelphia.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

foxnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Ray Barnes, a Philadelphia Eagles legend, died at age 90 Wednesday, the team announced. The Eagles released a statement Friday night saying Barnes died in Landis, North Carolina, surrounded by his family and friends. “He was 90 and had a fabulous life,” Barnes\u2019 daughter, Billi Barnes Akins, said in the Eagles\u2019 announcement. Philadelphia Eagles legend Billy Ray Barnes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[35862,27187],"class_list":["post-52130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-barnes","tag-eagles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52132,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52130\/revisions\/52132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}