Dennis Morgan (American football)
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Position: | Running back | ||||
Personal information | |||||
Date of birth: | June 26, 1952 | ||||
Place of birth: | White Plains, New York | ||||
Date of death: | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. | ||||
Place of death: | East Rutherford, New Jersey | ||||
Height: | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). | ||||
Weight: | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). | ||||
Career information | |||||
High school: | White Plains Senior (NY) | ||||
College: | Western Illinois | ||||
NFL draft: | 1974 / Round: 10 / Pick: 255 | ||||
Career history | |||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||
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Career NFL statistics | |||||
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Player stats at PFR |
Dennis Morgan (June 26, 1952 – October 25, 2015) was an American football running back in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football at Western Illinois University and was drafted in the tenth round of the 1974 NFL Draft.
Contents
Early years
Morgan, grew up in White Plains, New York and attended White Plains Senior High School. After Bradley University dropped its football program, he transferred to Western Illinois University where he played running back and was named Honorable-Mention All-American in 1972.[1]
Professional career
Dallas Cowboys
He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 10th round of the 1974 NFL Draft. Known as “Strawberry” due to his red hair,[2] his speed allowed him to have an early impact on special teams.
As a rookie, he tied the longest punt return in NFL history with a 98-yard touchdown (also a franchise record) against the St. Louis Cardinals.[3][4] That season he finished third in the NFL in punt return average with 15.1 yards and led the team in both punt return yards (287) and kickoff return yards (823).
Morgan was cut on August 4, 1975, because Tom Landry didn't think he could afford the luxury of keeping a player that could only help the team in the return game.[5]
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles claimed him off waivers,[6] but he played in only 4 games during the 1975 season. He had 170 yards (24.3 average) on kickoff returns and 60 yards (7.5 average) on punt returns.
Death
Morgan died on October 25, 2015 after suffering a heart attack while attending the New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys game at MetLife Stadium.[7]
References
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- ↑ Former Dallas Cowboys player dies after heart attack at Cowboys game
- NFL player using deprecated currentteam parameter
- NFL player with pastcoaching parameter
- NFL player with pastexecutive parameter
- 1952 births
- 2015 deaths
- People from White Plains, New York
- Players of American football from New York
- American football running backs
- Western Illinois Leathernecks football players
- Dallas Cowboys players
- Philadelphia Eagles players