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An All-American Story
Bakhtiar Uses Football to Pursue His Dream (Jan. 2007)
 Dr. Jamshid Bakhtiar doesn’t display any trophies in his offices in Ranson, West Virginia. There are no cleats or helmets, jerseys or footballs mounted on pedestals.
The game of football was once an important part of Bakhtiar’s life, and he was good at it. As a rugged 6-foot tall, 205-pound fullback at the University of Virginia, Bakhtiar long ago etched his name into the Cavaliers’ record book and it remains there still.
From 1955 to 1957, “Jim” Bakhtiar — given such colorful nicknames as “The Iron Iranian” and “The Iranian Prince,” among others — ran roughshod over the competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Despite starting on both offense and defense as a fullback and linebacker, Bakhtiar completed his collegiate career as the ACC’s all-time leader in rushing yardage (2,434 yards), attempts (555) and most 100-yard games — records that stood for more than 10 years. Bakhtiar still ranks as Virginia’s sixth all-time leading rusher despite just playing three years of varsity football during one of Virginia’s leanest stretches of success.
“We just didn’t have the horsepower like Duke did,” Bakhtiar said. “We beat Carolina — Jim Tatum was coaching at that time, and we really were underdogs. We beat Virginia Tech down in the Richmond Tobacco Bowl (in 1957). I still hold the record actually, with Wali Lundy. He and I are the only Virginia backs to score four touchdowns against Virginia Tech.
“We just didn’t have enough people. I played 60 minutes every game — I mean, I never came out. We just didn’t have the number of athletes, and the University of Virginia was even harder to get into at that time in terms of their academics.”
Despite the Cavaliers’ struggles, the press took notice of Jim Bakhtiar. After gaining an ACC-high 822 yards in 1957, in his senior season, Bakhtiar was named a first-team all-American by the Football Writers Association of America. As part of that team, Bakhtiar was featured in Look Magazine and appeared on the “Perry Como Show.” He shared third-team Associated Press all-America honors with future NFL great Jim Taylor; the AP didn’t select a fullback for the first or second team that year.
A year with the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders followed, and Bakhtiar was just as successful. He gained 991 rushing yards for Calgary and was named the team’s most outstanding player, after that he never strapped on a football helmet again.
“I went up there and did pretty well, actually,” Bakhtiar said. “But I just decided that I wanted to go to medical school, and I didn’t want to take the risk of getting hurt.”
Nearly 50 years have passed since then, but Bakhtiar added another football accolade to his resume this past December when he was named as The Football Writers 2006 All-America Alumni Award recipient.
Bakhtiar, who received the award on Dec. 9 during a ceremony in Orlando, Fla., was featured on ESPN and rubbed elbows with the likes of college coaching legend Lou Holtz and television personality Regis Philbin (who served as emcee during the banquet).
“One of the nicest things about the award was it really wasn’t for my football,” Bakhtiar said. “It was for what I did after football. If athletes can realize that there’s a whole life out there after football, and if you get locked in and think it’s only football, then I think you’re shortchanging yourself.”
– By Jeff Nations
The Martinsburg (W.Va.) Journal
reprinted with permission
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