The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Former Football and NFL great Pete Lammons passes away
04.30.2021 | Football
A member of Texas’ 1963 National Championship team and the New York Jets Super Bowl III champions, Lammons was 77.
A former standout tight end at Texas who went on to a highly successful professional football career, Pete Lammons passed away on Thursday. He was 77. Lammons is among an elite group of Longhorns who won both a National Championship at UT and a Super Bowl in the NFL.
Texas' leading receiver in 1964 (13 receptions, 204 yards) and '65 (27-405), Lammons earned consensus first-team All-Southwest Conference honors in 1965. He caught seven passes for 97 yards in 1963 as he helped UT to an 11-0 record and the Longhorns' first National Championship. In 1964, Texas went 10-1 and finished ranked No. 5 nationally, while Lammons and the Longhorns capped that year with a 21-17 upset of top-ranked Alabama in the 1965 Orange Bowl. That Crimson Tide squad was quarterbacked by the legendary Joe Namath, who just a few years later would join forces with Lammons to pull off an upset in the 1969 Super Bowl.
Inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 2002, Lammons played both ways at both tight end and defensive end for the Longhorns. He caught 47 passes for 706 yards and five touchdowns in his three varsity seasons. Those numbers still rank among the top 10 in the Longhorn all-time receiving records by a tight end, while his three touchdown catches versus Baylor in 1965 remain tied for the UT all-time best by a tight end.
Lammons was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the 1966 NFL Draft, as well as the New York Jets in that year's AFL Draft and chose to go to the Big Apple. Two years later, he was tabbed All-Pro in 1968, earning a trip to the Pro Bowl in a year the Jets recorded the first winning season (8-5-1) in franchise history. The following year, the Jets had one of the most memorable seasons in pro football history as he was joined by former Longhorn teammates DL John Elliot, DB Jim Hudson and WR George Sauer in a World Championships season in 1969. The AFL Champion New York Jets pulled off one of the NFL's most storied upsets in Super Bowl history with a 16-7 over the NFL champion Baltimore Colts. Lammons had a pair of catches in Super Bowl III, while his fellow Longhorn Sauer hauled in eight receptions for 133 yards. All four Longhorns were key contributors in winning the championship as Hudson registered an interception to go with three solo tackles, and Elliott contributed a trio of solo stops.
Lammons played six seasons (1966-71) with the Jets before finishing his playing days with the Green Bay Packers in 1972. In seven NFL seasons, he played in 95 games, starting 83, and had 185 receptions for 2,364 yards and 14 touchdowns.
A Jacksonville, Texas native, and Jacksonville High School graduate, Lammons lived in Houston after retirement. He worked in real estate and partnered with Hudson for 20 years in the thoroughbred horseracing business. Lammons also competed in Major League Fishing events, as well.
