Goodbye to Dan Reeves at the age of 77.
Reeves played eight seasons with the Dallas Cowboys as a running back, winning a Super Bowl championship with Dallas in 1972 in their 24-3 win over the Dolphins but is better remembered for his coaching career with the Broncos, Giants, and Falcons.
Reeves took Denver to three Super Bowls and Atlanta to their first-ever Super Bowl but all four teams lost on the big stage and that might be what is keeping Reeves from the Hall of Fame, although Marv Levy and Bud Grant each lost four Super Bowls and are enshrined in Canton.
Reeves's Denver teams won 10 or more games seven times to go with the three AFC titles and Reeves is one of only nine coaches to win more than two hundred games in their career.
As a Denver fan during the Reeves years, I know personally how little offensive skill talent that Reeves and John Elway had to work with and honestly I don't see how if you have Marv Levy in the Hall that you don't vote in Dan Reeves.
Goodbye to Ralph Neely at the age of 78.
A teammate of Dan Reeves with the Dallas Cowboys, Neely was named All-Pro at offensive tackle. four times and was selected to the NFL's all-1960s team.
Neely won two Super Bowls with Dallas and many believe that Neely is just as deserving as his partner at tackle with the Cowboys, Rayfield Wright, as a Hall of Famer.
Neely was the only player that had a specific place in the 1966 AFL-NFL merger as Neely had signed contracts with both the Cowboys and Houston Oilers coming out of Oklahoma.
The case moved into litigation and one stipulation of the merger was for the Neely situation to be settled between the two Texas teams.
The agreement would see Dallas send a first, second, and two fifth-round draft choices as well as agreeing to an annual pre-season game between the teams for a "Governor's Cup".
Goodbye to Len Hauss at the age of 79.
Hauss started 192 consecutive games in a 14-year career that he spent all with Washington at center.
Hauss was the anchor of the successful teams of the offensive line for the standout George Allen teams of the 1970s, making five Pro Bowls between 1966 and 1972.
Hauss was the ninth-round pick in 1964 by Washington from Georgia as part of a draft that saw Washington draft Hall of Famers in the first two rounds in Charlie Taylor and Paul Krause.
Len Hauss was the first professional football player that I ever met and should I stumble upon the picture that he signed for me, I'm sure I'll write a post about that day!
Goodbye to Ross Browner at the age of 67.
Part of the Browner family that saw four brothers play in the NFL and two of their sons, including Browner's son, Max Starks, play in the league, Ross Browner was the first of the four to make an impact as Browner was the eighth overall pick by the Bengals in the 1978 draft after winning the Outland Trophy in 1976 and the Lombardi Trophy in 1977 at Notre Dame.
Browner would play nine years with the Bengals, finishing with eight or more sacks six times before jumping to the USFL's Houston Gamblers for the 1985 season.
Browner would play again for the Bengals in 1985 and 86 before finishing his career in 1987 with the Packers.
Goodbye to Dave Campbell at the age of 96.
Campbell's namesake magazine " Dave Campbell's Texas Football" is known as the bible of Texas high school and college football and has been in print since 1960.
Campbell was the long-time sports editor for the Waco Tribune-Herald and when he started Texas Football (and for several years) printed the magazine out of his home before it eventually outgrew the kitchen!
Campbell would sell the magazine in 1985 but his name would remain and he would be involved with the magazine until his passing.
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