Daryl Lynn Hunt (November 3, 1956 – July 9, 2010) was a professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player, a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for six seasons for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

appearing in 78 career regular season games after being selected by Houston during the 6th round of the

1979 NFL Draft The 1979 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979, at the Waldorf Astoria ...

Early life

Hunt was born in

Odessa, Texas Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small section of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 census, mak ...

the son of educators Walter and Elayne Hunt. He was the first African-American to play football at

Permian High School Permian High School is a public high school located in Odessa, Texas and is one of three high schools in the Ector County Independent School District. It was the subject of the book '' Friday Night Lights'', which in turn inspired a movie and T ...

College career

Hunt played linebacker and remains the OU career record-holder for tackles with 530. He had three of the best six single-season tackle totals (157 in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

, 159 in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

and 177 in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

). He earned all- Big Eight status three-times and was selected as an All-American in

and

, and won the Outland Trophy Award.

Pro career

Hunt was drafted in the sixth round of the 1979 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers, and played 73 games from 1979 to 1983. He retired in 1984 due to a knee injury.

Death

Hunt died at age 53 of a massive heart attack while jogging in Houston on July 9, 2010.

References

External links

Oklahoma Sooners bio
1956 births 2010 deaths People from Odessa, Texas Players of American football from Texas American football linebackers Oklahoma Sooners football players Houston Oilers players Permian High School alumni {{linebacker-stub