Bennie Lee Cunningham, Jr. (December 23, 1954 – April 23, 2018 Matt Connolly

''The State'', April 23, 2018 ) was an American football

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Lik ...

. Cunningham was drafted out of the

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

in the 1976 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. During his career, he played in 118 games and caught 202 receptions for 2,879 yards and 20 touchdowns. Cunningham's most famous play in the NFL was a game-winning touchdown in a Pittsburgh home game versus divisional rival Cleveland on September 24, 1978. It came on a flea-flicker play, culminating in a pass from Terry Bradshaw to Cunningham, who caught the ball in the back right corner of the end zone. It gave the Steelers a dramatic 15–9 victory over the Browns in sudden-death overtime. On April 23, 2018, Cunningham died at age 63 at the

Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation established in 1921, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, ...

in Ohio, where he had been fighting cancer for about three months.

References

External links

Cunningham's stats
1954 births 2018 deaths American football tight ends Clemson Tigers football players Pittsburgh Steelers players All-American college football players People from Laurens, South Carolina Players of American football from South Carolina {{Tightend-1950s-stub