{"id":661618,"date":"2026-04-03T22:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:20:14","slug":"georgia-two-sport-star-top-5-mlb-draft-pick-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661618\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia two-sport star, top-5 MLB draft pick, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Pyburn, a two-sport standout at the University of Georgia who became the highest MLB draft pick in Bulldogs history, died March 29. He was 68<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The son of Jim Pyburn, who played three seasons<\/a> for the Baltimore Orioles (and was an accomplished football<\/a> player at Auburn before that), Jeff Pyburn was chosen fifth overall by the San Diego Padres in the 1980 draft.<\/p>\n

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MORE: Former Mets outfielder, 10-year MLB veteran, dies at 84<\/a><\/p>\n

Pyburn arrived on the Georgia campus as a Parade All-American quarterback from Cedar Shoals High School in Athens, part of a recruiting class that saw promise in his arm and poise. By 1977, he was Georgia\u2019s starting quarterback, holding the job into the 1979 season.<\/p>\n

Pyburn led the Bulldogs\u2019 run-first offense with what one account described as \u201cresilience and leadership.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Football wasn\u2019t his only lane. Pyburn was an All-SEC outfielder who finished his college baseball career with a .345 batting average. He hit .400 in 1980 with 15 homers \u2014 including three grand slams \u2014 an SEC-leading 54 runs scored and 66 RBIs.<\/p>\n

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Pyburn hit .295, reached base at a .385 clip, and stole 74 bases in three seasons in the San Diego Padres\u2019 organization. He topped out at Triple-A Hawaii in 1982, his final season of professional baseball.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, Pyburn was invited to the Buffalo Bills\u2019 training camp as a defensive back nearly four years after he last played football.<\/p>\n

Instead of continuing his career in football, Pyburn enrolled<\/a> in Arizona State University Sandra Day O\u2019Connor College of Law, graduating in 1986.<\/p>\n

MORE: Vikings announce tragic death of six-time NFL Pro Bowler<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my third year in the Padres organization, the Buffalo Bills called me,\u201d Pyburn said in a 2019 interview<\/a>. \u201cThey drafted me after my senior season, and had retained the rights to me. A few years later (summer of 1983), the Bills had gotten some guys hurt in their defensive secondary and, I thought, not many guys get to do this (play in the NFL), so I went up to Buffalo.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJust before the season started, I tore my knee up again but, this time, it was a career-ending injury \u2014 no more football or baseball. In retrospect, I probably should\u2019ve just continued playing baseball, but I didn\u2019t. It was just one of those things \u2014 injuries happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pyburn went on to become a trial attorney, handling both plaintiff and defense cases for nearly 40 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Pyburn, a two-sport standout at the University of Georgia who became the highest MLB draft pick in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2276],"tags":[47,5,15492,84377,84376,84375,84374,2291,4,1586,84378,18,16477],"class_list":{"0":"post-661618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baltimore-orioles","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-bulldogs-history","12":"tag-cedar-shoals-high-school","13":"tag-jeff-pyburn","14":"tag-jim-pyburn","15":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-mlb-draft","18":"tag-played-football","19":"tag-san-diego-padres","20":"tag-university-of-georgia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116343106878952631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}