2023-09-28 06:02:01
MORGANTOWN – The West Virginia University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will retire football’s No. 66, in honor of Pro Football Hall of Famer Chuck Howley, during the BYU game on Nov. 4.
Competing in track, swimming, men’s gymnastics, wrestling and football, Howley was the first, and likely the last, Mountaineer student-athlete to win letters in five different sports. He was a sprinter and weight man on the track team, a trampolinist in gymnastics, won the Southern Conference 1-meter diving championship in swimming and competed on Steve Harrick’s Mountaineer wrestling team as a heavyweight.
His greatest accomplishments, however, were on the gridiron where he excelled as a guard and center on offense and linebacker and middle guard on defense for coach Art “Pappy” Lewis. During Howley’s three years playing with the varsity, WVU compiled a 21-8-1 mark.
The Chicago Bears selected Howley in the first round of the 1958 draft (No. 7 overall), making him just the third Mountaineer football player at the time to be selected in the first round by an NFL organization.
He played one season for the Bears before a serious knee injury in 1959 caused him to miss most of the next two years.
In 1961 the newly formed Dallas Cowboys decided to take a chance on Howley and it paid off in a big way. He was named All-Pro six times on one of the most feared defenses in the NFL. Howley played in the 1967 NFL championship game against the Green Bay Packers, known as the “Ice Bowl” and considered one of the most memorable games in NFL history.
His greatest professional moment, however, came in Super Bowl V in 1971 playing against the Baltimore Colts. Although Dallas lost the game 16-13, Howley still won game MVP honors. It was the first time and only time in Super Bowl history a player on a losing team won MVP honors.
In 1972, the Cowboys again reached the Super Bowl, this time defeating the Miami Dolphins. Howley had another outstanding game with a 41-yard interception return, but quarterback Roger Staubach won the MVP award.
He is a member of WVU’s inaugural 1991 WVU Sports Hall of Fame class, joining the likes of Sam Huff, Ira Rodgers and Jerry West in that famous first class, and was also enshrined in the famous Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1977.
On August 5, 2023, Howley reached the pinnacle of his illustrious career when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
An on-field presentation with Howley’s son, Scott, and his family is planned during the BYU game, and his No. 66 will permanently be displayed on the façade of Milan Puskar Stadium’s Diversified Energy Terrace with the other five retired numbers.
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