Born on This Day in 1947, the First-Round NFL Draft Pick Who Scored a No. 1 Country Hit in the 90s

No one could ever call Mike Reid one-dimensional. Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on this day (May 24) in 1947, he was both a football standout and a dedicated pianist. Reid was fortunate enough to chase both passions as an adult, playing five seasons in the NFL before scoring a number-one hit in 1991 with the song “Walk On Faith”.

Videos by American Songwriter

Mike Reid Didn’t Leave Football Behind For Music

Clocking in at an imposing 6 feet 3 inches and 253 lbs., Mike Reid fit right into his railroading hometown where football was king.

After graduating from Altoona High School, he went on to become a defensive standout at Pennsylvania State University, leading the Nittany Lions with 89 tackles. A unanimous All-American, Reid finished fifth in the 1969 Heisman Trophy race and took home the Maxwell Trophy as the nation’s outstanding football player of the year.

When not on the field, he played classical piano with the college symphony, earning his bachelor’s degree in music from Penn State.

The Cincinnati Bengals selected him with the sixth overall pick of the 1970 NFL draft. The league named him its defensive rookie of the year after his first season. Reid would spend five seasons with the Bengals, twice making the NFL All-Pro Team.

So it must have come as something of a shock when Reid announced his retirement from football at 27 years old. After just five seasons, the young defensive tackle had already undergone five knee operations, cracked a vertebrae and had a shoulder problem.

“The life of an athlete was no longer the life I wanted to lead,” Reid said in a 2020 interview.

Another Hall of Fame Career

Still, Reid insists he never intended to make a career in music.  “I just kind of drifted into it,” he said. “I had studied music and earned my degree in music from college, but I never thought I would get into it professionally.”

[RELATED: 4 Pro Athletes Who Retired and Became Badass Musicians]

After leaving his first career, Mike Reid formed a band that played regularly at a Holiday Inn across the Ohio River. Eventually deciding he worked better as a solo act, Reid began performing alone and writing his own songs. One of those songs, “Eastern Avenue River Railway Blues” found its way to country singer Jerry Jeff Walker, who recorded it in 1978.

Moving to Nashville in 1980, Reid won a Grammy Award four years later for Best Country Song with “Stranger in My House”, recorded by Ronnie Milsap.

He also wrote several number-one hits for other artists, including Alabama’s “Forever’s as Far as I’ll Go” (1990) and Bonne Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (1991).

Featured image by Marc Andrew Deley/FilmMagic for Country Music Association