And his love of the game led to his greatest musical success, starring first a young Farrah Fawcett and finally a legendary recording of his melody “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Gladys Knight and the Pips.
Weatherly, who also wrote songs for Ray Price, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers and others, died Wednesday at his home in Brentwood, Tennessee, near Nashville, according to friend Charlie Monk in the Tennessean newspaper.
He was 77 and his family told Monk that Weatherly died of natural causes.
Born in Mississippi, Weatherly played for the University of Mississippi football team in an undefeated 1962 season, an SEC championship and a national championship. The following year, he was the starting quarterback when the Rebels repeated as SEC champions.
Weatherly called the Majors’ house one day and the actor’s girlfriend, who would become the star of “Charlie’s Angel,” Farrah Fawcett-Majors, responded. He said he was about to take the “midnight plane to Houston” and visit his family.
“A small bell rang,” Weatherly told the NSAI. “It seemed like a song title to me.”
He wrote “Midnight Plane to Houston” as a country song, never imagining it would become an R&B hit. When it came to Gladys Knight & the Pips, the title and style had changed and it became a No. 1 Grammy classic.
“I’m amazed it lasted as long as it lasted,” Weatherly told the NSAI. “It’s a timeless record.”
Knight and the Pips also had hits with Weatherly’s songs “None of Us” and “The Best Thing That Happened to Me.”
On Friday, Knight tweeted, “I already miss Jim Weatherly. It was about life and love … We were made for each other. We made life grow together. I will miss him terribly and the I will always love. “
As a performer, Weatherly had a pop and contemporary hit for adults with “The Need to Be” and a country hit with “I’ll Still Love You,” according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. It was entered in 2014. “Midnight Train” is among Rolling Stone’s top 500 songs of all time.