Former Cowboys OL Tom Rafferty Dies at Age 70, Won Super Bowl 12 with Dallas

Tom Rafferty, who played 14 seasons at center and right guard for the Dallas Cowboys and won Super Bowl XII with the team to cap the 1977 season, died Thursday at the age of 70.

Per Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News, Rafferty died after suffering a stroke. His daughter, Rachel Powers, said Rafferty had been hospitalized since early May.

Rafferty played 203 games over his 14 seasons, starting 182. He had a streak of 167 straight games played, which was a franchise record at the time, per ESPN's Todd Archer.

Rafferty enjoyed tremendous team success at the beginning of his career. The Cowboys won the Super Bowl in his second season behind a powerful and well-rounded team. On the offensive side, quarterback Roger Staubach led the way with running back Tony Dorsett and wide receiver Drew Pearson. But a powerful offensive line also helped matters, with Rafferty playing a key role.

Dallas returned to the Super Bowl in 1978 but fell to a superstar-laden Pittsburgh Steelers team, 35-31. Still, the Cowboys offense was tremendous again, finishing first in scoring after taking second the year before.

Dallas never returned to the Super Bowl with Rafferty on the roster, but the team still fared well, enjoying winning seasons from 1979 to 1985. Rafferty was a mainstay through all of it.

During that stretch, Rafferty's block paved the way for Dorsett's record-breaking 99-yard run in 1983 in a 37-24 road win over the Minnesota Vikings.

He was ultimately a tremendous NFL draft steal after the Cowboys took the ex-Penn State star with a fourth-round pick in 1976. He played 13 games (no starts) in his rookie year but became a full-time starter for the team's Super Bowl run in 1977. And he was a stalwart from then on out until the late 1980s.

After his NFL playing days were over, Rafferty went into sports equipment sales. Sadly, he dealt with transverse myelitis, a neurological condition, in 2008. Per Sherrington, he stayed in the hospital for 48 days and did not want the help of a wheelchair. Eventually, he was able to walk again.

“He just kept at it until he could walk again,” Powers told Sherrington. “No sensation below his waist, but he made it happen. Got a lot of physical determination.”

Per Sherrington, Rafferty is survived by his wife, daughter, son and two grandchildren.

"Rafferty’s children remember their father, who earned his bachelor’s at Penn State and an MBA at the University of Dallas and was honored as a member of the Greater Syracuse Hall of Fame, as a smart, quiet, generous man who got a kick out of teasing people he knew well," Sherrington wrote.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said that Rafferty earned his MBA from UT Dallas. It has been corrected and now says he earned his MBA from the University of Dallas. We regret the error.