Former Dallas Cowboys tackle Jethro Pugh remembered for the Ice Bowl

Jethro Pugh’s hands were cracked and flaky.

The former Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle, who died at 70 last week in Dallas, bore scars from when his hands were frost-bitten during the 1967 NFL championship game against the Green Bay Packers.

“When we’d go out to eat, I’d notice his hands,” said Ulysses Bell, Pugh’s friend since they entered Elizabeth City State as freshmen in 1961. “You still could see the damage.”

“They were ugly,” said Dr. Claudie Mackey, another of Pugh’s college classmates. “If you’ve ever seen anything that has been frost-bitten, you can imagine. But I never heard Jethro complain. That wasn’t his nature.”

Pugh, who was 6-foot-6 and played at 260 pounds, started at defensive tackle defensive for 14 years. He had 95.5 sacks and two Super Bowl rings.

“You’d think that with 95 and a half sacks that he’d be All-Pro and receive all sorts of honors. But he was overshadowed by a couple of his teammates, Bob Lilly and Randy White,” Mackey said.

The Dallas Cowboys will play a playoff game at Green Bay on Sunday for the first time since the 1967 game. Conditions are expected to be extreme, but not nearly as frigid as they were in 1967.

It was so cold in Green Bay on Dec. 31, 1967 that game officials could not use their whistles, which froze to their lips.

Pregame and halftime shows by the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse band were canceled. Woodwinds wouldn’t play and brass musicians had the same frozen lip problems as the officials. Seven band members were hospitalized.

The thermometer at Lambeau Field recorded a minus-20 degrees as quarterback Bart Starr broke the huddle with 16 seconds left in thegame. Cowboys defensive tackle Lilly pawed at the frozen ground, trying to dig a foothold that might help preserve Dallas’ 17-14 lead as the Packers lined up at the one on third down.

Pugh stood beside Lilly, his already damaged hands folded close to his stomach and tucked under his jersey.

Years later, Pugh told ESPN.com that he was so cold that he began to hallucinate, remembering childhood warnings from his mother.

“I swear,” Pugh told ESPN. “I heard her say, ‘Jethro, what are you doing out in that weather, you fool?’ ”

The Cowboys expected a pass. Green Bay had just taken its last time out.

Instead, Green Bay called “Brown Right 31 Wedge.”

Seconds later, Packers guard Jerry Kramer, who wrote about the play in a best-selling book, “Instant Replay,” double-teamed Pugh with center Ken Bowman. Starr shuffled into the end zone for the NFL championship.

Pugh is best remembered for being on the wrong side of the most famous quarterback sneak in NFL history. The play is a bitter memory to Mackey.

“I’m sure we’ll hear all about it again during the game this week,” said Mackey, who is the Marc Basnight Endowed Chair of the School of Education at ECSU. “But I hope they tell the real story. It wasn’t a one-on-one situation.”

Kramer wrote in his book, “Willie Townes, next to Jethro, was down low, very low. He was supposed to come in low and close to the middle. He was low, but he didn’t close. He might have filled the hole, but he didn’t, and Bart churned into the opening and stretched and fell and landed over the goal line.”

Pugh understood those three seconds were linked to him forever.

“He wore it well,” Mackey said. “I didn’t complain. He had a great career. The Cowboys won a lot of football games. He was a great player who seemed to be overlooked.”

Pugh wasn’t a great football player when he arrived at Elizabeth City State in 1961. He had played high school in the eastern North Carolina town of Windsor, but he joined the Elizabeth City State squad as a walk-on. Coach Thomas Caldwell saw a lot of potential.

Bell, who had played quarterback in football and point guard in basketball at Nash Central, had planned to walk on in football at Elizabeth City State, but got one look at Pugh and decided to concentrate on basketball.

“He was a big, strong country boy, but his athletic ability hadn’t caught up with him yet when he was a freshman,” Mackey said. “He was young. When he signed his contract with the Cowboys, his parents had to co-sign it with him because he was so young.”

Pugh was taken in the 11th round of the 1965 NFL draft. He and Mackey, who didn’t play football but had caught the Cowboys’ eyes on evaluation visits, were signed and made their first airplane trips from Norfolk to Thousand Oaks, Calif.

“Jethro had injured his shoulder playing intramural softball and in training camp he mostly worked on rehabbing his shoulder,” Mackey said. “I think they knew they had someone special.”

During his 14-year career, Dallas won 10 or more games 11 times, won its division 10 times and won two Super Bowls.

This story was originally published January 9, 2015 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Former Dallas Cowboys tackle Jethro Pugh remembered for the Ice Bowl."