June James (American football)

June James IV (December 2, 1962 – May 8, 1990) was an American football linebacker who played two seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Detroit Lions and Indianapolis Colts.

James was born in Jennings, Louisiana and attended high school at Southeast High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He played college football at the University of Texas at Austin where he was an All-Southwest Conference linebacker.

He played in the East-West Shrine All-Star Game before being drafted by the Lions in the ninth round of the 1985 NFL Draft. He played for the Lions in 1985 and the Colts in 1987. In 1988 he moved to the Canadian Football League (CFL) where he spend a season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He was injured in the summer of 1989 and had planned to return to football in the summer of 1990. James died in a single car crash near Gonzoles, Louisiana, in May 1990 when he was 27.