One of the greatest Arkansas Razorback football players of all time, Lance Alworth completed his journey to the pinnacle of pro football by winning a Super Bowl
Lance Alworth is one of the greatest football players the University of Arkansas has ever produced. The receiver was the first superstar for the Razorbacks under then-coach Frank Broyles at the end of the 1950s and the start of the 1960s. He was a First-Team All-American and an All-Southwest Conference player who led the Razorbacks to multiple SWC championships. His collegiate career was legendary in its own right and on its own terms, leading to eventual induction in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Alworth enlarged his career and his legend in the pros, winning both the AFL championship with the Chargers franchise (which began in Los Angeles and then moved to San Diego) and the Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL. Alworth scored a touchdown for the Cowboys in Super Bowl VI against the Miami Dolphins in January of 1972. If you are an older football fan who religiously watched NFL Films' Super Bowl recaps around this time every year, you remember seeing Alworth tapping down both feet just inside the sideline and pylon in the end zone to score his Super Bowl touchdown against the Dolphins.
In the 1960s, football was a running back-dominated game. The shift of pro football to an offense-first, pass-centric sport had not yet occurred. Even so, Alworth produced at an elite level with uncommon consistency, delivering seven consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards. He was not only fast, but intelligent and decisive. In short, he knew how to run precise routes and get open all the time. Alworth is a member of the AFL and NFL All-Time Teams and an inductee in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
You name it, Lance Alworth did it: Conference champion, AFL champion, NFL champion, Super Bowl champion, All-American, College Football Hall of Famer, Pro Football Hall of Famer. He is also a member of the Chargers Hall of Fame and helped the Dallas Cowboys win their first NFL championship after years of falling just short. He played for iconic, revolutionary football coaches: Broyles at Arkansas, then Sid Gillman with the Chargers and Tom Landry with the Cowboys.
His achievements are the stuff of legend, in both college and in the pros. His career intersected with so many other greats of the game. He played in the Cotton Bowl, the AFL Championship Game, and the Super Bowl. He caught passes from Tobin Rote, the champion quarterback whose pro football career began in 1950, and from Roger Staubach, whose career ended on the next to last day of the 1970s: December 30, 1979.
Lance Alworth's story is astounding in the breadth and depth of its achievements, but it is also a window into nearly a quarter of a century of football history. Alworth, a Super Bowl champion, owns an eternal place in the top tier of Arkansas football icons.