| No. 75 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Defensive tackle | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born | (1944-07-03)July 3, 1944 Windsor, North Carolina, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Died | January 7, 2015(2015-01-07) (aged 70) Dallas, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight | 260 lb (118 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school | Windsor (NC) Bertie | ||||||||||
| College | Elizabeth City State | ||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1965: 11th round, 145th overall pick | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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Jethro Pugh Jr. (July 3, 1944 – January 7, 2015) was an American professionalfootballdefensive tackle in theNational Football League (NFL) for theDallas Cowboys for fourteen seasons.[1][2] He playedcollege football atElizabeth City State College.
Pugh was born on July 3, 1944, inWindsor, North Carolina, the son of Jethro Sr. and Mamie (Coggins) Pugh. He was raised in Indian Woods Township.[3][4][5] Pugh graduated from W. S. Etheridge High School in Windsor, where he was an All-Conference tackle on the football team.[6][4] He was coached by his uncle, Turner R. Coggins.[4][5]
Pugh enrolled at nearbyElizabeth City State College at the age of 16, on an athletic scholarship.[2][4] He playedcollege football for the Vikings on offense and defense and became a two-time All-CIAAdefensive end in 1963 and 1964.[7] He is one of five persons to have his jersey retired by the school, nowElizabeth City State University.[8][9]
In 1979, he was inducted into theCentral Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Hall of Fame. In 1980, he was inducted into theNorth Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. In 1981, he was inducted into theECSU Sports Hall of Fame. In 2010, he was inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame.[10] In 2016, he was inducted into theBlack College Football Hall of Fame.[11]
In 1978, Windsor held a Jethro Pugh Day.[5]
Pugh was selected in the eleventh round (145th overall) of the1965 NFL draft, by theDallas Cowboys,[12] and was also offered a contract to play with theOakland Raiders of theAFL. He was only 20 years old when he started his professional career as a backupdefensive end for the Cowboys.[13] At the end of the1966 season, he was moved to leftdefensive tackle replacingJim Colvin in the starting lineup.[14] As a starter in 1967, he was the Cowboys most valuable player in two games; including a game against thePhiladelphia Eagles where he had twofumble recoveries, a pass break-up,sacking Eagles quarterbackNorm Snead for total losses of 14 yards, and leading the defense to seventackles for losses.[15]
In the final seconds of the1967 NFL Championship Game, the famousIce Bowl atGreen Bay, Pugh was blocked byPackers' guardJerry Kramer and centerKen Bowman for the game-deciding touchdown. Kramer's and Bowman's blocks cleared the way forBart Starr to score on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 16 seconds remaining, liftingVince Lombardi's team to a 21–17 victory and an unprecedentedthird consecutive title game win in −15 °F (−26 °C) weather atLambeau Field. Pugh believed, and film of the play arguably showed, that Kramer wasoffside on the play, and should have been called for a penalty. Kramer and Bowman may have admitted this as well.[16][17][18][19] Pugh experiencedfrostbite that day.[20]
It was the second consecutive season that Dallas had fallen to the Packers in the championship game; theprevious year was a close game in theCotton Bowl. Always a team player, Pugh carried on through the1971 season with a case ofappendicitis and delayed his surgery until the offseason, by taking shots of penicillin.[21]
In 1968, he had four fumble recoveries and nine quarterback sacks.[22] Pugh was voted second-teamAll-Pro by theAssociated Press (AP).[23] He played with the Cowboys for his entire career, from1965 through1978.[3] His 14 seasons, matched by five others, represent the sixth-longest career in Cowboys history; onlyJason Witten,L. P. Ladouceur,Ed "Too Tall" Jones,Bill Bates, andMark Tuinei played more years.[24]
Although he was widely regarded as an excellent player and received All-Pro honors in 1968, he was never voted to aPro Bowl.[22] Pugh's achievements as a professional athlete were largely overshadowed for most of his career by his defensive line teammates, who werePro Bowl regulars. When Pugh started, he had to compete for attention with futureHall of FamerBob Lilly andGeorge Andrie; when they retired, Pugh played on the samedefensive line with College andPro Football Hall of FamerRandy White,Harvey Martin, andEd "Too Tall" Jones.[3] Both Lilly and White were named to theNFL 100th Anniversary Team.[25]
Even though he was a physical player against the run, his athleticism enabled him to become an excellent pass rusher for adefensive tackle.[2]
Whilequarterback sacks were not an official NFL statistic during his career, Pugh is unofficially credited with a career total of 95.5. He led the Cowboys in sacks each season from1968 to1972 with a high mark of 15.5 in 1968,[3][26] a team record that stood until2010 whenDeMarcus Ware reached six straight seasons, eventually leading the Cowboys in sacks from 2005 to 2012.[27][28] Pugh averaged 12½ sacks during one amazing stretch of his career (1968–1972),[29] and currently ranks sixth on the Cowboys all-time sacks list with 95.5.[30]
Following the1978 season andSuper Bowl XIII, in which he did not play due to injury, Pugh retired on January 29, 1979.[31] During his career, he helped the Cowboys win twoSuper Bowls (and playing in four), fiveNFC Championships, qualify for the NFL post-season in 12 out of 14 seasons, and played in a then league record 23 playoff games.[32]
Pugh showed financial acumen from an early age, when he had the Cowboys defer part of his compensation, which was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time he retired.[2] Pugh owned a number of western-themed gift shops atDallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas.[33] He later partnered with The Parodies Shops which had businesses across the U.S. and Canada.[2] He also hosted an annual Jethro Pugh Celebrity Golf Tournament in Dallas to raise funds for theUnited Negro College Fund.
On January 7, 2015, he died at the age of 70 inDallas, Texas.[2][34]