Chuck Howley

At 87 years old, Chuck Howley has this physical status:

Charles Louis Howley (born June 28, 1936) is a former American football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys.

Howley was a member of the Chicago Bears in his first two seasons and spent the remainder of his career with the Cowboys.

He was named the MVP of Super Bowl V, and as of Super Bowl LIII is the only player on a losing team to receive the award.

He was also the first non-quarterback to receive the award.

Early years

Born and raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, Howley attended Warwood High School and graduated in 1954. He lettered in football, High school basketball, and baseball. In football, he was first-team all-state and all-OVAC as a senior. As a teenager he competed in gymnastics.

He played college football at West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he was a three-time All-Southern Conference selection and the conference player of the year in 1957. At WVU, Howley joined the Mu Mu chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Howley played guard and center during his three years at varsity, in which the Mountaineers compiled a 21–8–1 record, including a 21–7 victory over Penn State, West Virginia's last until 1984. He played in the East-West Shrine Game and the Senior Bowl, which helped him get noticed by the Chicago Bears. He also was in the College All-Star Game in August 1958, a 35–19 win over the defending champion Detroit Lions.

He is the only athlete in school history to letter in five sports: football, track, wrestling, gymnastics, and swimming. He won the Southern Conference one-meter diving championship.

Howley was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the West Virginia University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Hall of Fame and the West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni.

Personal life

Following retirement, Howley ran a uniform rental business in Dallas and is now involved in a foundation dedicated to breeding quarterhorses at Happy Hollow—located in Wills Point, Texas. His broodmare herd consists of more than 50 mares. He lives in Dallas.

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Professional career

Howley was ranked seventh overall in the 1958 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, playing for two seasons before undergoing what seemed to be a career-ending knee injury in August 1959 at training camp in Rensselaer, Indiana. He appeared in only three games late in the season and was inactive in 1960. He returned to West Virginia earlier this year to work at a gas station, intending to withdraw from professional football permanently.

Following a West Virginia alumni game, Howley decided to make a comeback in 1961. In the 1963 NFL draft, the Bears traded his rights to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for second (#20-Steve Barnett) and ninth (#118-Monte Day) round draft picks.

Dallas had gone 0-11-1 in their first season before acquiring Howley, but the new team was also keen to play for the new squad. "I went back because I realized there were better things to do than running a gas station," he said. "I thought it would be a great opportunity to play for Dallas, a team that was just getting off," says Also.

Although Howley began as a strongside linebacker in 1961 and 1962, he switched to a weakside linebacker in 1963. Howley was named to the Sporting News All-East football team for the first time at the end of the 1963 season. Howley holds the second most interceptions by a linebacker in a season with six, which he earned in 1968.

Howley appeared with the Cowboys for 165 games in three NFL championship games and two Super Bowls. Since intercepting two passes and causing a fumble in the Cowboys' 16-13 loss to the Colts, he was named the first defensive player and non-quarterback to be honoured. He is currently the only player from the losing team to win the award. Howley said he didn't care about the award, which meant nothing to him because Dallas had lost, and that the honor was only accepted because it included the gift of a brand-new station wagon that he could give to his wife as a gift.

Dallas made it back to Super Bowl VI this season, and Howley's 24-3 victory over the Miami Dolphins featured a fumble recovery and a 41-yard intercept.

Howley intercepted 25 passes during his career, returning them for 399 yards and two touchdowns. For both the 1968 and 1971 seasons, he had more than 100 yards in interceptions. He also recovered 18 fumbles, completing them for 191 yards and one touchdown. With his 17 fumbles recovered, he is second in Cowboys' history. His 97-yard return of a fumble during a game against the Atlanta Falcons on October 2, 1966, is still the second longest game in Cowboys history. He had a large number of tackles and quarterback fireds along with his resume, but these numbers were not released until Howley's tenure ended, so his unofficial sack total for the Dallas Cowboys was 26.5, with a career high of 5.5 sacks in 1965. Howley, a six-time Pro Bowler, was voted to the All-Eastern Conference team in 1963 and was voted first-team All-Pro five times in his career.

In the victory over the Redskins late in the 1972 regular season, Howley sustained a left knee injury after a crackback block by Charley Taylor. He missed the playoffs and retired in June. He made a brief return to the team and appeared in one game before pulling out for good. His thirteen seasons with the Cowboys ties him to his second longest franchise tenure. In 1977, Howley was inducted into the Ring of Honor at Texas Stadium, becoming the fourth player to be honoured. He was also inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2007, he was one of the 17 finalists chosen to be seniors candidates for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Howley is ranked as the third-best player not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, according to the website notinthehalloffame.com. Howley was one of the three finalists selected by the senior committee in 2006 for induction in the 2023 NFL Hall of Fame class.

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