Surprisingly, Riley Green isn’t the first ex-football player to score a No. 1 hit in country music. After five seasons in the NFL, Mike Reid turned to his other great love—music. Reid’s only career No. 1 hit, “Walk On Faith,” came on this day (Feb. 26) in 1991.
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Released in November 1990 as the lead single from his debut album Turning for Home, Reid co-wrote “Walk On Faith” with Allen Shamblin. The song spent 20 weeks on the Hot Country Singles chart, peaking at No. 1 in February 1991.
Hitting No. 22 on the country albums chart, Turning for Home yielded two more top 20 singles, “Till You Were Gone” and “As Simple As That.”
While Mike Reid would release two more solo albums, Turning for Home represented his commercial peak as a solo artist. However, his songwriting skills would land him in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.
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Mike Reid’s Journey From the Gridiron to the Stage
Born May 24, 1947, Mike Reid hails from Altoona, Pennsylvania—a railroading town where high school football “was a big deal,” he said. His athletic abilities landed him a scholarship to Penn State University, where he captained both the Nittany Lions’ undefeated 1968 and 1969 squads.
A unanimous All-American, the 6’3′, 253-lb. defensive tackle balanced football with continuing the piano lessons he’d begun as a child.
“My dad and uncle dragged an old upright piano up from my grandmother’s house, and I would bang on that keyboard,” Reid recalled. “Then I would listen to hymns in church, and that reflects a lot in the writing I do now.”
After graduating from Penn State with his bachelor’s degree in music, Reid entered the 1970 NFL draft, where the Cincinnati Bengals selected him with the seventh overall pick. He helped the Bengals to the playoffs his first season, earned two Pro Bowl bids, and retired in 1974 as the team’s all-time leading sacker at the time.
After injuries ended his sports career, Reid set his sights on music. He moved to Nashville in 1980 and began writing songs for Ronnie Milsap, including the 1984 Grammy winner “Stranger in My House.” He also wrote hits for Conway Twitty (“Fallin’ for You for Years”), Alabama (“Forever’s as Far as I’ll Go”), and Bonnie Raitt (“I Can’t Make You Love Me.”
Featured image courtesy of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
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