GREEN BAY – Former Packers All-Pro receiver Billy Howton, who still holds the franchise records for most receiving yards in a single game and most receiving yards and TDs in a rookie season, died Monday in his home state of Texas, according to a Houston Chronicle obituary.
He was 95.
Drafted by the Packers in the second round in 1952, Howton joined his college quarterback from Rice, Tobin Rote, in Green Bay. In Howton's rookie season, he led the NFL with 1,231 receiving yards in just 12 games, scoring 13 touchdowns. The yards and TDs still stand as Packers rookie receiving records by more than 400 yards and by four scores.
He was the first rookie in NFL history to gain more than 1,000 yards on pass receptions, and he broke Don Hutson's team record for receiving yards in a season.
Howton went on to play a total of seven seasons with the Packers before being traded to Cleveland in 1959. He spent one year with the Browns and then four with Dallas before retiring after a 12-year career.
Earning four Pro Bowl and three Associated Press All-Pro selections (two first-team, one second-team), all with the Packers, Howton caught 303 passes for 5,581 yards and 43 TDs in his time with Green Bay. He averaged 18.4 yards per catch, which ranks second in team history for players with at least 200 receptions, behind only Carroll Dale's 19.7.
He led the league in receiving yards again in 1956 with 1,188, and he led the league in receiving TDs that year as well with 12. He finished his career with 503 catches for 8,459 yards and 61 TDs.
When he retired following the 1963 season, Howton held the NFL records for most career receptions and receiving yards. Both marks were soon broken by Baltimore's Raymond Berry, a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer in 1973 who was on the record in his belief that Howton should be in Canton, too.
"I'll tell you a guy who is overlooked is Billy Howton," Berry said. "(Howton) was extremely professional in his pass routes. He knew what he was doing to maneuver and fake to get open. He would be effective going inside, going outside, effective going deep. He was an extremely dangerous receiver and had great technique."
Howton caught the first TD pass at what is now Lambeau Field, a 37-yard completion from Babe Parilli in a 21-17 victory over the Chicago Bears on the day the stadium was dedicated, Sept. 29, 1957.
A year earlier, Howton broke Hutson's team record for receiving yards in a single game when he compiled 257 on just seven catches on Oct. 21, 1956, against the L.A. Rams. It surpassed Hutson's 237 set in 1943, and the closest anyone has come to it since is 220 yards, by Don Beebe in 1996.
Less than three months after Vince Lombardi was hired as general manager and head coach, Howton was traded to Cleveland for defensive end Bill Quinlan and halfback Lew Carpenter. One of the founders of the NFL Players Association in 1956, Howton served as the union's first president.
Inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1974, Howton was an All-American receiver at Rice, where he's in the school's Hall of Fame and has his name in the stadium's ring of honor. Howton turned 95 just last month.
