Dave Butterfield
former American footballer
Dave Butterfield (born July 29, 1954) is an American former college football defensive back who played for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He was a consensus All-American in 1976. He was selected by the New York Jets in the eleventh round of the 1977 NFL draft.
Early life
Dave Butterfield was born on July 29, 1954, in Emporia, Kansas. He played high school football at Sterling High School in Sterling, Colorado and earned all-state honors.
College career
Butterfield played college football for the Nebraska Cornhuskers of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He was on the freshman team in 1972 and redshirted the 1973 season. He was then a three-year letterman from 1974 to 1976. Butterfield became a starter his sophomore year in 1974 but missed part of the season due to a neck injury. Overall, he posted 12 solo tackles, 14 assisted tackles, and one pass breakup during the 1974 season.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Dave Butterfield” as former American footballer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as former American footballer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17595023. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1954, 1976, 1977 and 1972.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dave Butterfield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.