James Ailinger, a UB alumnus and retired member of the UB dental school faculty who played professional football when Red Grange was still a collegian and the forward pass was a novelty, died March 27 in a Rochester hospital. He was 99 and the oldest former National Football League player.

In the autumn of 1924, while in his final year of dental school at UB-where he had been captain of the football and basketball teams-Ailinger joined the Buffalo Bisons of the NFL, which had been founded only four years earlier. Listed at 5 feet 11 and 185 pounds, he played guard on both offense and defense.

Ailinger left professional football after only one season, turning instead to a dental career.

A native of Buffalo, he practiced dentistry here until he was in his late 80s. He was a UB dental school faculty member from 1937-60.

In addition to his academic and dental pursuits, he was a college football official from the 1920s to the 1960s, working as a head linesman in more than 400 games by his estimate, including the Army-Navy and Harvard-Yale rivalries. He served as president of the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials.

He also was general manager of the Buffalo team in the American Hockey League during the 1940s.