Former Albany businessman Brady Keys Jr., a former NFL All-Pro defensive back who in 1967 became one of the first African Americans to form a national restaurant franchise group, died Tuesday in New York. He was 81.

Keys, a native of Austin, Texas, operated Keys Group in Albany for a number of years and owned radio stations WJIZ-FM and WJAZ-AM in the city. He had nearly a dozen fast-food restaurant franchises before selling most of his Albany holdings around 2002 and moving his operations to Orlando, Fla., where his business had been a vendor at the city’s airport since 1992. Keys opened three locations in Orlando in 2002.