Hamlin’s Scare Recalls NFL’s Darkest Day

Written by: Don Leypoldt on Thursday, January 5th, 2023. Follow Don Leypoldt on Twitter.

Football fans are still in shock at the horrible scene of Buffalo Bill safety Damar Hamlin lying on the ground and being administered CPR, which you can check this out to get more info.  For a significant number of readers, Hamlin’s cardiac arrest especially hit home: he was a Pitt Panther from McKees Rocks via Central Catholic.

Many Pennsylvania football fans were well acquainted with Hamlin before the rest of the nation, tragically, all learned his name.

As of this writing- Tuesday at noon- Hamlin, Thank God, is alive albeit in critical condition.  Sadly, there was a strong Pennsylvania tie to the NFL’s worst day: October 24, 1971.

On that day, Detroit Lion wide receiver Chuck Hughes, a Philadelphia native and former Eagle collapsed mid-game and passed away.  It’s believed to be the NFL’s lone in-game fatality.

Hughes was born in Philadelphia on March 2, 1943.  The family- 13 children in all moved to Abilene, Texas when Hughes was a youngster.

A 5’11” burner, Hughes had an outstanding junior season at Texas Western (now UTEP).  He caught 86 passes for 1634 yards and 13 touchdowns and led the Miners to a 1965 Sun Bowl win.  Both the catches and yards were school records at the time, and the 349 receiving yards he wracked up against North Texas was a then-NCAA record.  Hughes was inducted into the UTEP Hall of Fame in 2006.

The Eagles selected him in the 4^th round of the 1967 season and he served as a kick returner in his rookie year.  Hughes earned two starts for the Birds in 1968 and gave Philly depth at wideout and returner in 1969.

Philadelphia traded Hughes to Detroit prior to the 1970 season.  He started nine games for a 10-4, playoff-bound Lion team, setting career highs in catches (8) and yards (162).

Interestingly, Detroit hosted and lost to Dallas the day after Christmas in the opening round of one of the weirder games in NFL history.  Dallas won 5-0 on a cold, but not freezing day, in which both teams combined for just 11 receptions.

Hughes’ final game was at home at Tiger Stadium when Detroit hosted Chicago.  Starter Larry Walton had gotten injured in the fourth quarter and Hughes replaced him.

Down 28-23 with less than two minutes left, Hughes just caught a 32-yard pass from Greg Landry.  He was a decoy on the next three plays when, returning to the huddle, he collapsed on the 15-yard line and lay motionless.

Team physicians gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and a heart massage, before rushing him to Henry Ford Hospital.  The hospital pronounced him dead.  Remarkably, the stunned teams finished the game, a 28-23 Chicago win.

“He was a great player and a great person,” said Lion owner William Clay Ford that afternoon.  “I’m just horrified and shocked.”

A team of physicians reviewing the autopsy attributed Hughes’ death to “a massive stoppage of the left coronary artery,” reported the St. Petersburg Time on October 27^th, 1971.  The paper continued that Hughes had a family history of heart disease.

“He was pronounced officially dead 50 minutes after the end of the game,” the paper ominously continued, “but both Lions’ doctors felt he was, in effect, dead when he hit the turf.”

Hughes was survived by his wife Sharon and his 2-year-old son Brandon.  Mass was held in St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Detroit and attended by the entire Lion team.  Hughes’ body was flown to San Antonio for burial.

The Lions could not bring him back but they honored his memory.  The team retired Hughes’ #85 and their award for Most Improved Player bears his name.

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