Interesting 1974 press photo

[bbgun]

Two of our bigger names were prepared to bolt to the WFL? News to me.

July 30, 1974 -- Dallas Cowboys linemen Jethro Pugh and Rayfield Wright announced today that they have signed with the Birmingham Americans of the World Football league. Pugh will join the Americans in the '76 season and Wright will join the club in 1977. This brings the total to seven Dallas Cowboys that have signed with the WFL.
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No mention of this at Wright's Wiki page. He probably could have kissed the HOF and the ROH goodbye had this happened. I wonder who the other five Cowboys were who defected or planned to. Danny White comes to mind.

[Hostile]

Calvin Hill (Houston) was one of the other 5, so was Craig Morton (Hawaii). Danny White (Memphis) did as well.

I am not sure on the other 2.

[bbgun]

Originally Posted by Hostile

Calvin Hill (Houston) was one of the other 5, so was Craig Morton (Hawaii). Danny White (Memphis) did as well.

I am not sure on the other 2.

D.D. Lewis surprised me.

[Captain Late]

That 1974 preseason was fractured by the players strike and the WFL looming over the team.Otto Stowe had been brilliant for the first 7 games in 1973,broke his ankle and never really recovered.He got on the wrong side of Mike Ditka in the 74 training camp(Ditka was the receivers coach) and was accused of not working hard enough to recover from his injury.Mike Montgomery had left under a cloud after 73 because of injury problems as well.I had always assumed the Cowboys WFL "defectors" were these 7:

Calvin Hill
Rayfield Wright
Otto Stowe
Jethro Pugh
Pat Toomay
D.D. Lewis
Craig Morton

Nice repost of that classic article,glad Rayfield,Jethro and D.D. stayed with the 75 Cowboys,and if I remember it right,Calvin Hill hurt his knee bad in his 75 WFL season and was never the same player again

[Idgit]

That's cool, bbgun. Thanks for posting it.

[fgoodwin]

Originally Posted by Hostile

Calvin Hill (Houston) was one of the other 5, so was Craig Morton (Hawaii). Danny White (Memphis) did as well.

I am not sure on the other 2.

It's true that Danny played for the WFL in 1974. But I wouldn't exactly say he "jumped" to the WFL. He was drafted by the Cowboys in 1974 but never signed with them. He opted to sign with the WFL instead. So his situation is not like that of the seven veteran Cowboys who did indeed jump (or planned to but for the collapse of the WFL before they could do so).

Danny's situation is more like that of EJ Holub, Scott Appleton, and other collegians of the early 60s who were drafted by an NFL team and simultaneously by an AFL team, and then chose to play in the AFL.