Guy Emory Benjamin is a retired American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 who played six seasons in the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

.

College career

Benjamin played high school football

High school football

High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....

 at James Monroe High School in North Hills, California and enrolled at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 in 1974. Initially, he shared starting

Starting lineup

A starting lineup in sports is an official list of the set of players who will actively participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes or bench players.The starters are commonly the best...

 duties with Mike Cordova, but he took over as full-time starter in 1976. In 1977, under coach Bill Walsh

Bill Walsh (football coach)

William Ernest "Bill" Walsh was a head coach for the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford Cardinal football team, during which time he popularized the West Coast offense....

, Benjamin led Stanford to a 24-14 victory over LSU

LSU Tigers

The LSU Tigers are the athletic teams of Louisiana State University. They participate in the NCAA's Division I, in the Southeastern Conference. It fields teams in 14 varsity sports . Its official team nickname is the Fighting Tigers and the school mascot is Mike the Tiger...

 in the 1977 Sun Bowl

Sun Bowl

The Sun Bowl is an annual U.S. college football bowl game that is usually played at the end of December in El Paso, Texas. The Sun Bowl, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl are the second-oldest bowl games in the country, behind the Rose Bowl...

. That season, Benjamin won the Sammy Baugh Trophy

Sammy Baugh Trophy

The Sammy Baugh Trophy is awarded annually to the nation's top college passer. The award is named in honor of former Texas Christian University and Washington Redskins quarterback "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh. The trophy has been given out by the Touchdown Club of Columbus since 1959...

, awarded to the top passer in college football, and the W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy

W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy

The W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy was awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation from 1951 to 1978 to the outstanding college football player on the Pacific Coast. The recipient was determined based on votes cast by West Coast football writers and later broadcasters as well. Award recipients include...

, awarded to the outstanding college football player on the Pacific Coast.

NFL career

Benjamin was drafted by the Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 in the second round of the 1978 NFL Draft

1978 NFL Draft

The 1978 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 2–3, 1978...

. He played two seasons behind Bob Griese

Bob Griese

Robert Allen "Bob" Griese is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who earned All-American honors with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins...

 and Don Strock

Don Strock

Don Strock is a former professional football player who was the head coach of the Florida International University football team from 2002–2006.-College:Strock played college football at Virginia Tech, and graduated in 1973...

, then spent one season as Archie Manning

Archie Manning

Elisha Archibald "Archie" Manning III is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League, playing for the New Orleans Saints from 1971 to 1982, then for the Houston Oilers and Minnesota Vikings...

's backup with the New Orleans Saints

New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....

. He was reunited with Bill Walsh when he joined the San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...

 in 1981, where he earned a Super Bowl ring

Super Bowl ring

The Super Bowl ring is an award in the National Football League given to the winners of the league's annual championship game, the Super Bowl...

 as Joe Montana

Joe Montana

Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr. , nicknamed Joe Cool, Golden Joe, The Golden Great and Comeback Joe, is a retired American football player. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with the San Francisco 49ers, where he played quarterback for the next 14 seasons...

's backup in Super Bowl XVI

Super Bowl XVI

Super Bowl XVI was an American football game played on January 24, 1982, at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan to decide the National Football League champion following the 1981 regular season. It marked the first time that a Super Bowl was held at a cold-weather city...

.

After football

After leaving football, Benjamin served as director of Athletes United for Peace, an organization founded by Olympic athletes after the United States' boycott

Boycott

A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...

 of the 1980 Moscow Olympics

1980 Summer Olympics

The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...

. Benjamin founded the Sports in Society Institute at New College of California

New College of California

New College of California was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President, Father John Leary. After 37 years, it ceased operations in early 2008....

 and directed the school's degree completion program for former student-athletes.

Benjamin lives in Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, where he served as offensive coordinator for the University of Hawaii football team. In 1988, he was to be the head coach of the World Indoor Football League

World Indoor Football League

This article is about the proposed league that was to begin in 1988, for the 2007 indoor football league, see World Indoor Football League The World Indoor Football League was an indoor football league that was to begin in 1988 to compete with the Arena Football League, which was playing its second...

's Las Vegas Aces, but that league folded before launch, and the Aces' bid to join the Arena Football League were turned away; as such, the Aces never played. He also coached the Hawaii Hammerheads

Hawaii Hammerheads

The Hawaii Hammerheads was an indoor football team in the Indoor Professional Football League during the 1999 season. The Hammerheads were owned by George Heatherington and played their home games at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. The team's official colors were: Aqua, Silver...

 of the Indoor Professional Football League

Indoor Professional Football League

The Indoor Professional Football League was the new incarnation of the Professional Indoor Football League , which started in 1998. Two of its teams left the league and their owner, Kerry Ecklund, founded the Indoor Football League in 1999...

 to the league championship in 1999, the team's only season. Benjamin then became the first head coach

Head coach

A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...

 of the IPFL's Portland Prowlers

Portland Prowlers

The Portland Prowlers were a professional indoor football team based in Portland, Oregon. Playing as a member of the Indoor Professional Football League for the 2000-2001 seasons, they played their home games at the Memorial Coliseum for both years of their existence. This was the second indoor...

 before returning to Hawaii, where he coached the Hawaiian Islanders

Hawaiian Islanders

The Hawaiian Islanders were a minor league team of the Arena Football League, the af2. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, the Hawaiian Islanders home field was at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena. It competed in the AF2 National Conference West...

 of the Arena Football League's minor league

Minor league

Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in...

, af2

Af2

AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...

.

Today, Benjamin is a director at Hawaii Medical Institute.