Former Cowboys punter Ron Widby died Wednesday, the team announced. Widby was 75.
Widby punted for the Cowboys from 1968-71, winning a ring on the team’s first Super Bowl championship team.
The Saints drafted Widby in 1967 out of the University of Tennessee. He joined the Cowboys a year later and appeared in his first career game in 1968.
Widby, who lettered in football, basketball, baseball and golf at Tennessee, also was drafted by the New Orleans Buccaneers of the ABA and the Chicago Bulls of the NBA. He played the 1967-68 season in the ABA and competed on the Senior PGA TOUR in the late 1990s.
Widby had an 84-yard punt in a game against the Saints in 1968, which still ranks as the franchise record. He averaged more than 40 yards per punt in each of his four seasons with the Cowboys.
In 1969, Widby finished second in the league with a career-best 43.3-yard average.
Widby’s claim to fame, though, might have come before the 1969 season when he voluntarily switched from No. 12 to No. 10 after Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach arrived. John Roach is the only other player in franchise history to wear No. 12.
The Cowboys traded Widby to Green Bay after the 1971 season, and he played his final two seasons in the NFL with the Packers.
