The obscure Super Bowl hero who has strong ties to Gaston College, Gastonia and the area

This week as we prepare for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, it[s possible there will be some chatter about an obscure Super Bowl hero who has strong Gaston College, Gastonia and area connections.

He's Percy Howard, a former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver who's only NFL catch was a fourth quarter touchdown reception from Roger Staubach in Super Bowl X on Jan. 18, 1976. He also nearly caught a game-winning touchdown in the closing seconds.

Howard's local connection began six years before his historic Super Bowl as he spent the 1970-71 season playing basketball for Isothermal Community College in Spindale.

A three-sport standout in high school, Howard chose to start his college career at the third-year program in Region 10 of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Isothermal Community College had started its basketball program in 1967 and Howard and future Gardner-Webb standout and local coaching legend Ken Napier were the standouts of the 1970-71 team that finished 15-10 overall against a challenging schedule that included contests against four-year university freshman teams.

Howard, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound forward, averaged 20 points per game that season and scored 34 in an 89-67 loss Furman and 28 in an 86-84 victory over UNC Charlotte. He also was the Patriots' top scorer (21 points) in a 91-58 loss at N.C. State with future NBA first-round pick Tommy Burleson scoring 29 points. (Isothermal's second-leading scorer, point guard Napier, would transfer and play the next two years to Gardner-Webb where he played alongside future Runnin' Bulldogs' pros George Adams and John Drew, before he became a championship-winning coach at Kings Mountain Junior High, Gastonia's York Chester Junior High and at Shelby High School.)

Howard would eventually transfer to Austin Peay, where two of the Governors' assistant coaches were former Gaston College basketball stars Leonard Hamilton and Larry Reid. (Hamilton, now at Florida State, is one of the winningest head coaches in NCAA history and Reid, who was a head coach at Tennessee State, retired as a longtime coach and administrator in Pensacola, Fla.)

During Howard's time at Austin Peay, he played alongside legendary future pro James "Fly" Williams and helped the Governors win back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference regular season titles and tournament titles with 22-7 and 17-10 records, respectively. Austin Peay went 17-10 again in Howard's senior year of 1975 as he earned All-OVC honors. Another Austin Peay teammate was former Ashbrook High standout player and future Ashbrook boys assistant coach and girls head basketball coach Juan Smith.

By the end of Howard's college basketball career, he received professional scouting attention but it was for a sport he hadn't played since high school: football

The Dallas Cowboys signed him to a contract as an undrafted free agent. When he had last played football, he had 13 touchdown catches and nine pass interceptions.

In Dallas' 1975 training camp, Howard impressed coaches enough to become a kickoff return man - he would return two kickoffs for 51 yards - and served as a backup wide receiver to starters Drew Pearson and Golden Richards.

With Drew Pearson (46 catches, 822 yards, 8 TDs), tight end Jean Fugett (38 catches, 488 yards, 3 TDs), running backs Robert Newhouse (34 catches, 275 yards) and Preston Pearson (27 catches, 351 yards, 2 TDs) and Richards (21 catches, 451 yards, 2 TDs) leading the Cowboys' receivers, Howard got sparing playing time (8 games) but had no catches.

But he was a part of a youthful team with 13 rookies that helped the Cowboys improve from 8-6 the previous season when their streak of playoff appearances under Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry ended at eight years.

The 1975 Cowboys finished second to the St. Louis Cardinals (now located in Arizona) in the NFC East before upsetting the 12-2 Minnesota Vikings 17-14 in the NFC semifinals when future Hall of Famers Staubach and Drew Pearson hooked up on the "Hail Mary" 50-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter.

After routing the Los Angeles Rams 37-7 in the NFC title game, the Cowboys were a clear underdog against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

For Howard, who had played football, basketball and track at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Dillard High, the game was a "homecoming" contest since the Super Bowl that year was being played at the old Orange Bowl site less than 30 miles from Howard's hometown. (Located in the Little Havana neighborhood in downtown Miami, the Orange Bowl was active from 1937 to 2008, served as home of the Orange Bowl, Miami Hurricanes and Florida International college football, the NFL's Miami Dolphins and five of the first NFL Super Bowls before its demolition in 2008 for the building of the current Miami Marlins' baseball park on the same location.)

In the game, Pittsburgh's Lynn Swann made four acrobatic catches for 161 yards and what proved to be a decisive 64-yard touchdown pass from Terry Bradshaw with 3:02 left in the game to give the Steelers a 21-10 lead.

But Howard emerged as an unexpected factor on the next two Cowboys' drives, first catching his TD pass with 1:32 left as Dallas crept within the final 21-17 margin. And later Howard had a "Hail Mary" pass deflect off his helmet in the end zone after Dallas' quick defensive stop gave Staubach one final possession.

With knee injuries in 1976 and 1977 preseason drills knocking him off the active Dallas roster the next two years, Howard's 34-yard TD catch remains the lone reception of his three-year NFL career. And he remains the only player in NFL history whose only reception came for a touchdown in the Super Bowl.