A one-hit Super Bowl wonder with Gaston County ties

DALLAS COWBOYS

Percy Howard, who played basketball at Isothermal Community College in Spindale, N.C., went on to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl with his only NFL catch.

As America prepare for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, it’s possible there will be some chatter about an obscure Super Bowl hero with Gastonia connections.

Percy Howard, a former Dallas Cowboys receiver, caught his only NFL pass from Roger Staubach for a fourth quarter touchdown in Super Bowl X on Jan. 18, 1976. He also nearly caught a game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds. Howard’s local connection began six years before in the 1970-71 season playing basketball at Isothermal Community College in Spindale.

A three-sport standout in high school, Howard started his college career at Isothermal Community College, which started its basketball program in 1967. Howard and future Gardner-Webb standout and local coaching legend Ken Napier were standouts on the 1970-71 team that finished 15-10 overall against a challenging schedule that included games against four-year university freshman teams.

Howard, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound forward, averaged 20 points per game that season and scored 34 in an 89-67 loss to Furman and 28 in an 86-84 victory over UNC Charlotte. He also was the Patriots’ top scorer (21 points) in a 91-58 loss at North Carolina State with future NBA first-round pick Tommy Burleson scoring 29 points.

Isothermal’s second-leading scorer, point guard Napier, transferred to Gardner-Webb, where over the next two years played alongside future professionals George Adams and John Drew, before he became a championship-winning coach at Kings Mountain Junior High, Gastonia’s York Chester Junior High and at Shelby High.

Howard would eventually transfer to Austin Peay, where two of the Governors’ assistant coaches were former Gaston College basketball stars Leonard Hamilton and Larry Reid. Hamilton, now at Florida State, is one of the winningest head coaches in NCAA history and Reid, who was head coach at Tennessee State, retired as a longtime coach and administrator in Pensacola, Fla.

During Howard’s time at Austin Peay, he played alongside legendary future pro James “Fly” Williams and helped the Governors win back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference regular season titles and tournament titles with 22-7 and 17-10 records, respectively. Austin Peay went 17-10 again in Howard’s senior year of 1975 as he earned All-OVC honors. Another Austin Peay teammate was former Ashbrook High standout player and future Ashbrook boys assistant coach and girls head basketball coach Juan Smith.

By the end of Howard’s college basketball career, he received professional scouting attention but it was for a sport he hadn’t played since high school: football.

The Dallas Cowboys signed him to a contract as an undrafted free agent. When he had last played football, he had 13 touchdown catches and nine interceptions.

In Dallas’ 1975 training camp, Howard impressed coaches enough to become a kickoff return man - he would return two kickoffs for 51 yards - and served as a backup wide receiver to starters Drew Pearson and Golden Richards.

With Drew Pearson (46 catches, 822 yards, 8 TDs), tight end Jean Fugett (38 catches, 488 yards, 3 TDs), running backs Robert Newhouse (34 catches, 275 yards) and Preston Pearson (27 catches, 351 yards, 2 TDs) and Richards (21 catches, 451 yards, 2 TDs) leading the Cowboys’ receivers, Howard got sparing playing time (eight games) and no catches.

But he was a part of a youthful team with 13 rookies that helped the Cowboys improve from 8-6 the previous season when their streak of playoff appearances under Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry ended at eight years.

The 1975 Cowboys finished second to the St. Louis (now Arizona) Cardinals in the NFC East before upsetting the 12-2 Minnesota Vikings 17-14 in the NFC semifinals when future Hall of Famers Staubach and Drew Pearson hooked up on the “Hail Mary” 50-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter.

After routing the Los Angeles Rams 37-7 in the NFC title game, the Cowboys were a clear underdog against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who won the previous Super Bowl.

For Howard, who had played football, basketball and ran track at Dillard High in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the game was a homecoming contest since the Super Bowl that year was being played at the old Orange Bowl in the Little Havana neighborhood less than 30 miles from Howard’s hometown. In the game, Pittsburgh’s Lynn Swann made four acrobatic catches for 161 yards and what proved to be a decisive 64-yard touchdown pass from Terry Bradshaw with 3:02 left to give the Steelers a 21-10 lead.

But Howard emerged as an unexpected factor on the next two Cowboys’ drives, first catching his TD pass with 1:32 left as Dallas crept within the final 21-17 margin. And later Howard had a Hail Mary pass deflect off his helmet in the end zone after Dallas’ quick defensive stop gave Staubach one final possession.

With knee injuries in 1976 and 1977 preseason drills knocking him off the active Dallas roster the next two years, Howard’s 34-yard TD catch remains the lone reception of his three-year NFL career.

And he remains the only player in NFL history whose only reception was for a Super Bowl touchdown.

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