Howley Set To Take His Place Among Mountaineer Immortals on Saturday
October 31, 2023 02:12 PM | Football, Blog
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By: John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Scott Howley is finishing something his father began 69 years ago when his dad was a freshman at West Virginia University.
Prior to Saturday's BYU game at Milan Puskar Stadium, Chuck Howley's No. 66 will be officially retired and placed on the stadium's façade on the Diversified Energy Terrace along with five other Mountaineer football greats.
All six are either in the College Football or Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Chuck was part of the nine-member Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023 that included Ronde Barber, Joe Klecko, Darrelle Revis, DeMarcus Ware, Zach Thomas, Ken Riley, Joe Thomas and Don Coryell and was inducted in Canton, Ohio, this summer.
Scott was on hand with his father's teammate Bob Lilly to accept on his behalf, and he will be on hand here this Saturday in place of his father.
Scott admits many of Chuck Howley's unique athletic accomplishments were unknown to him and his sister, Robin, because his dad simply didn't talk about them. He was a man who always let his actions speak louder than his words, which is probably why it has taken so long for pro football's best outside linebacker in the late 1960s, a six-time All-Pro, to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
However, if you know anything about the Ohio Valley and Warwood, West Virginia, where Chuck was raised, it comes as no surprise at all. People who live there simply don't talk about themselves.
I remember once asking the late Mickey Furfari about Chuck. Mickey's journalism career covering West Virginia sports spanned from World War II right up until his death in 2016, and he said of Howley, "Chuck was damned good, and he knew it!"
What Mickey meant was that Howley was always comfortable in his own skin and never felt the need to remind others of his accomplishments. He did his job well, and he let the chips fall where they may.
"My dad always spoke through his actions," Scott said earlier this week. "He never would talk a lot, but you always knew what he was going to do because of his actions. His actions always spoke for him."
When Scott would quiz his father about the two Super Bowls he played, or the famous 1967 NFL Championship Game played in Green Bay which later became immortalized by NFL Films as the "Ice Bowl," the details from him were always sparse.
"He kind of told me a little bit about it, but he didn't really expand much on anything," Scott recalled. "He wasn't really a person that viewed football as something that was fun to reminisce about. For him it was a business, and it was his job. I would have loved to know more from him about the Ice Bowl more than just seeing it (on NFL Films). A lot of what I learned about my dad I learned through news clippings, articles, television interviews and things of that nature."
I asked Scott's father about that game back in 2011, one of three times I talked to him, and this is what he said:
"When you're playing, I don't think you realize (how cold it was). I think our down linemen realized it because they had to put their hand down on the ground every time," Chuck said. The game time temperature was minus-13 with an average wind chill factor of minus-48. One publication ranked it the third greatest NFL game of all-time. "My only problem was the second half, there was a mist in the air and the heater on the field ceased to work about halftime and the field began to ice up and it was very difficult to get your footing. Scott Howley, pictured with his family at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony for his father earlier this summer (Pro Football Hall of Fame photo).
"If you were covering somebody out of the backfield, you had to make a choice. If you made a choice and it was the wrong choice, you couldn't stop and go back the other way," Chuck added.
He also hinted that there may have been some shenanigans on the Packers' part because the Cowboys were a much faster and more athletic team than Green Bay.
"Their heating element somehow went astray," he explained. "There was a lot of speculation of whether or not they turned it off, but it was the same for both teams regardless."
Perhaps Scott already knew that story, or maybe he didn't.
When Scott and Robin were little, they didn't attend the away games nor the two Super Bowls in which their dad played, including the one he was named MVP while performing for a losing team. For years, that accomplishment made him the answer to a trivia question.
The two Howley children stayed home with a sitter while their mother, Nancy, attended the Super Bowl.
"She went with him to the games, and she loved it," Scott said. "She had her group of friends that were all wives of the players, and they were very close and stayed together. They really enjoyed the time they had together."
Chuck gave the Dodge Charger he won for being named Super Bowl MVP to his wife. When she took it out of the garage to drive it to a bridge game, she squealed the tires going through the neighborhood and immediately returned it to the garage. Chuck ended up trading it in for a station wagon with wood paneling on the sides.
Back then, it was your homes that rusted and your cars that rotted, instead of vice versa.
"I couldn't believe he traded that in for a station wagon," Scott laughed. "It was just devastating to me to come out and see that sitting in the driveway."
Scott's football time with his father came during training camp when he hung out with the kids of his dad's Cowboys teammates Dan Reeves, Leroy Jordan, Bob Lilly, Tony Liscio and Dave Manders.
"We were kind of this little brat pack who would run around, and the trainers would look after us," Scott remembered. "That's probably what led me into becoming an athletic trainer for a while in college and high school because the trainers would keep an eye on us.
"I spent a lot of time in the training room as a result of that," he said.
On game weeks, Scott said his father was off-limits in the evening time on the days before home games. Chuck Howley becomes the sixth Mountaineer football player to have his number retired (WVU Athletics Communications photo).
"(Coach) Tom Landry had this policy where the night before a home game all players had to check into this Holiday Inn that was down close to the stadium, and they had to be in the hotel by 6 p.m. the night before a game," he explained. "We would take dad to the hotel before games, and that was kind of our thing with him."
Once Chuck started his successful uniform rental and embroidering business, which Scott now oversees with his brother-in-law, he didn't spend much time socializing with his teammates at the team complex after practices.
After practice was over, he showered and quickly changed into a suit and tie to become businessman. Chuck earned far more from his uniform rental business than he ever made as a professional football player.
"When he was away from the team, he wanted to be present with the family, so we really didn't blend a lot of that together," Scott said.
Family vacations were often spent in that wood-paneled station wagon traveling to the beach or driving back to West Virginia to visit family. Trips back to the Mountain State were always joyful times for the Howleys.
"He loved that place. When I was younger, I guess I understand now why he had the station wagon because that station wagon took many trips to West Virginia, and I would sleep in the back," Scott said.
"We would stay at Oglebay in one of the cabins. That was a lot of fun," he added. "I really loved doing that. We did get to see lots of different places around the country. That was the time when he could really loosen up and be a dad."
Scott is still learning about his father's life living in Wheeling and later playing at West Virginia University. It wasn't until recently that he learned that his father wore No. 66 at WVU, or that he played positions other than outside linebacker like he did in the pros.
A recent documentary on Chuck's career, produced by a television station in Dallas, was also enlightening, as were subsequent meetings Scott has had with some of the participants in the documentary.
Sadly, Chuck's dementia has progressed to the point where he is now living in an assisted care facility. Their mother is also struggling with Alzheimer's and is living in a care facility as well. Scott has been relegated to the role of family spokesperson now because of Robin's reluctance to do interviews or public speaking, a trait she likely got from her father.
"I guess I was the default person handed the job. Of course, I wish it was dad doing this, but that's unfortunately not even a possibility anymore," Scott said.
When Scott brought back the replica Hall of Fame bust of his father's likeness to show him there was very little recognition. Among siblings, Chuck has one living sister who resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Mary Ann, but her advancing age no longer permits her to travel long distances.
That means Scott, his wife Emily and their daughter Anna will be traveling to Morgantown for Saturday's number retirement ceremony, joining a local Howley clan that will exceed 40.
Incidentally, Scott's oldest daughter, Sarah, spent two years on Nikki Izzo-Brown's WVU women's soccer team before two knee surgeries ended her career. She ended up graduating from Southern Methodist University. In all, Chuck has six grandchildren – Sarah, Anna and Brandon from Scott, and Rebecca, Steven and Courtney from Robin, who won't be attending this weekend because she is planning her son's wedding.
When asked about his father's accomplishments, Scott beams with pride.
"We're so proud. We're so excited for him and for his family still living in West Virginia. It really is special for us," he said.
"I hope (some of his father's best traits) rubbed off on me. I'd like to think it did," he concluded.
Kickoff for Saturday's BYU game is 7 p.m. The contest will be televised nationally on FS1.
Tickets remain and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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