Larry Thomas Pridemore is a former safety from West Virginia who played eight seasons in the for the Atlanta Falcons and a legislator.
Education
Pridemore played for the Ansted "Highlanders" and was a member of the record setting team that won 36 straight games on their way to winning back-to-back state championships (1971 and 1972).
Pridemore, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001, holds school records that include: most career interception return yards (398 - 265 yards per return), most single game interception return yards, and most career interceptions (15). He also holds a WVU school record which doubles as an National Collegiate Athletic Association record as the Longest interception returned for a touchdown (102 yards vs Penn State). As a sophomore, Pridemore led the Mountaineers to a 1975 Peach Bowl victory against the North Carolina State Wolfpack.
Career
After being drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1978, Pridemore saw his first start in the third game of his rookie year and never looked back. Pridemore was Atlanta"s starting free safety for the next eight years, and earned the reputation as one of the meanest, hardest-hitting safeties in the game. With 21 career interceptions (returned for 368 total yards), Pridemore ranks sixth on Atlanta"s all-time pick list behind Deion Sanders.
He ranks fourth on the all-time list for most interceptions in a season at 7, and holds the Falcon"s club record for most interception return yards in a single season (271).
In 1981 Pridemore picked off a Joe Montana pass from a yard deep in Atlanta"s own end-zone and returned it 101 yards for a touchdown, which is a team record. This duplication of Pridemore"s previous college and National Collegiate Athletic Association record will probably also stand for quite some time, if not forever in Atlanta.
While playing for the Falcons, Pridemore served one term in the West Virginia House of Delegates, between 1980 and 1982 as a Democrat. He is the only player to hold this legislative office while playing professional football.
Pridemore is a prominent businessman in the greater Atlanta area, and has personal ventures in residential real-estate and timber properties.
Pridemore now has two sons who play football at the collegiate level Matt, the eldest, enrolled at Duke University as a wide receiver in 2007, and TJ, who plays fullback for the University of Florida, enrolled in 2008.