Legendary Owl Dicky Maegle Passes Away
7/6/2021 10:26:00 AM | Football
College Football Hall of Famer
Former Rice All-American Dicky Maegle, whose record-setting performance in the 1954 Cotton Bowl was overshadowed by the most famous tackle in college football history, passed away on Sunday at the age of 86.
Maegle came to Rice from Taylor, Texas (northeast of Austin) as a 16-year old freshman in 1951 and played both freshman football and basketball. After missing his sophomore year because of an injury, he teamed with senior Kosse Johnson to form a formidable tandem in the backfield that would lead the Owls to an 8-2 record and a berth in the Cotton Bowl against Alabama.
Johnson had earned All-America honors that season while setting a school record with 944 yards rushing, but it was Maegle who proved unstoppable against the Crimson Tide.
After Tommy Lewis of Alabama opened the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown, Maegle ripped off a 75-yard score to put the Owls up 7-6. Moments later, Maegle burst free from the Rice five-yard line and sprinted past the Crimson Tide bench on his way to an apparent score, but Lewis darted out from the Bama bench to tackle him.
The moved stunned the crowd of 75,504 as well as a national audience and the referees ruled the play a 95-yard touchdown, the longest rushing play in Cotton Bowl history. Maegle would add a 34-yard score later as the Owls went on to win 28-6. While he rushed for 265 yards on only 11 carries and his average of 24.1 yards per carry remains the highest of any player with at least nine carries in a bowl game, the tackle by Lewis would ensure the duo a place in college football history.
In addition to his NCAA record for yards per carry in a bowl game, Maegle holds Rice records for yards rushing in a game (265), yards per carry in a season (7.31 in 1953) and career (6.6). He is tied for sixth on the Rice single-season list with 11 rushing touchdowns in 1954 and tied with eight others for second in school history with four rushing touchdowns in a game (vs. Cornell, October 2, 1954).
He also excelled in the classroom, become the second Owl to be named by CoSIDA to its Academic All-American team in 1954.
Maegle earned All-America honors the following season, giving Rice back-to-back running back honorees, and he was drafted by San Francisco with the 10th pick in the 1955 NFL Draft where he found his greatest success as a defensive back.
He intercepted 28 passes in 73 career games, setting a career-high with eight in 1957. He became the first player in Steelers history to intercept three passes in a game, off Bobby Layne in a 19-17 loss to the New York Giants.
He was named to the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 1955 and earned All-Pro honors in 1956 and 1957 from various media outlets. After five seasons in San Francisco, he was traded to Pittsburgh for a first round draft pick that the 49ers used to draft future Pro Football Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson. He was traded by the Steelers to the Dallas Cowboys for the 1961 season. He retired prior to the 1962 season due to recurring injuries.
Late in his career, he made the decision to change the spelling of his name from its original Moegle to Maegle which was phonetically correct.
After his retirement from the NFL, Maegle returned to Houston to build a career in the hotel and real estate business, including the management of a pair of hotel properties near the Rice campus.
He was one of 15 Rice legends who comprised the first class of inductees into the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame in 1970 and became the fourth Rice player inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame in 1979. In 1998, he joined Jim Brown, Bobby Layne, Darrell Royal, Doak Walker, J. Curtis Sanford and Field Scovell as the inaugural inductees in the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
Funeral services will be Monday at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons in Houston.
Maegle came to Rice from Taylor, Texas (northeast of Austin) as a 16-year old freshman in 1951 and played both freshman football and basketball. After missing his sophomore year because of an injury, he teamed with senior Kosse Johnson to form a formidable tandem in the backfield that would lead the Owls to an 8-2 record and a berth in the Cotton Bowl against Alabama.
Johnson had earned All-America honors that season while setting a school record with 944 yards rushing, but it was Maegle who proved unstoppable against the Crimson Tide.
After Tommy Lewis of Alabama opened the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown, Maegle ripped off a 75-yard score to put the Owls up 7-6. Moments later, Maegle burst free from the Rice five-yard line and sprinted past the Crimson Tide bench on his way to an apparent score, but Lewis darted out from the Bama bench to tackle him.
The moved stunned the crowd of 75,504 as well as a national audience and the referees ruled the play a 95-yard touchdown, the longest rushing play in Cotton Bowl history. Maegle would add a 34-yard score later as the Owls went on to win 28-6. While he rushed for 265 yards on only 11 carries and his average of 24.1 yards per carry remains the highest of any player with at least nine carries in a bowl game, the tackle by Lewis would ensure the duo a place in college football history.
In addition to his NCAA record for yards per carry in a bowl game, Maegle holds Rice records for yards rushing in a game (265), yards per carry in a season (7.31 in 1953) and career (6.6). He is tied for sixth on the Rice single-season list with 11 rushing touchdowns in 1954 and tied with eight others for second in school history with four rushing touchdowns in a game (vs. Cornell, October 2, 1954).
He also excelled in the classroom, become the second Owl to be named by CoSIDA to its Academic All-American team in 1954.
Maegle earned All-America honors the following season, giving Rice back-to-back running back honorees, and he was drafted by San Francisco with the 10th pick in the 1955 NFL Draft where he found his greatest success as a defensive back.
He intercepted 28 passes in 73 career games, setting a career-high with eight in 1957. He became the first player in Steelers history to intercept three passes in a game, off Bobby Layne in a 19-17 loss to the New York Giants.
He was named to the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 1955 and earned All-Pro honors in 1956 and 1957 from various media outlets. After five seasons in San Francisco, he was traded to Pittsburgh for a first round draft pick that the 49ers used to draft future Pro Football Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson. He was traded by the Steelers to the Dallas Cowboys for the 1961 season. He retired prior to the 1962 season due to recurring injuries.
Late in his career, he made the decision to change the spelling of his name from its original Moegle to Maegle which was phonetically correct.
After his retirement from the NFL, Maegle returned to Houston to build a career in the hotel and real estate business, including the management of a pair of hotel properties near the Rice campus.
He was one of 15 Rice legends who comprised the first class of inductees into the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame in 1970 and became the fourth Rice player inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame in 1979. In 1998, he joined Jim Brown, Bobby Layne, Darrell Royal, Doak Walker, J. Curtis Sanford and Field Scovell as the inaugural inductees in the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
Funeral services will be Monday at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons in Houston.
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