Dennis Frank Homan (born January 9, 1946 in

Muscle Shoals, Alabama Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located along the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the populati ...

) is a former 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 ...

wide receiver in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for five seasons for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

(1968–1970) and the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

(1971–1972). He later played for the

Birmingham Americans The Birmingham Americans were a professional American football team located in Birmingham, Alabama. They were members of the four-team Central Division of the World Football League (WFL). The Americans, founded in late December 1973, played in t ...

(1974) and

Birmingham Vulcans The Birmingham Vulcans were a professional American football team located in Birmingham, Alabama. They were members of the five-team Eastern Division of the World Football League (WFL). The Vulcans, founded in March 1975, played in the upstart lea ...

(1975) of the

World Football League The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 and most of its second in 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest t ...

Early years

Homan attended

Muscle Shoals High School Muscle Shoals High School (MSHS) is the sole public secondary education institution in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. MSHS has been awarded the Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Award for Excellence. Academics Based on the Alabama Reading and Math Test scores ...

where he practiced

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. In 2005, the Muscle Shoals City School System honored Homan by naming the field of James F. Moore Stadium, Dennis Homan Field. Homan played on the school's first

team and is the first

player to be drafted into the NFL. He also was inducted into the Colbert County Sports Hall of Fame. He accepted a

scholarship to the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

, where he was a member of the 1965 National Championship team and the 1966 undefeated season. He was originally recruited as a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

. As a sophomore, he had 10 receptions for 298 yards and 4

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s. As a junior, he became a starter at split end, playing alongside

Ray Perkins Walter Ray Perkins (November 6, 1941 – December 9, 2020) was an American football coach and player. He played as a wide receiver for the University of Alabama and Baltimore Colts. He later worked as a football coach for 28 years, including sti ...

, while registering 23 receptions for 377 and 5

s. As a senior, he was named consensus All-American and

Academic All-American The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

, after making 54 receptions for 820 yards and 9

s. He also played in the

Senior Bowl The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game played annually in late January or early February in Mobile, Alabama, which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those players who have completed their college eligibility. Pr ...

, where he was the MVP of the South team. During his collegiate career, he registered 87 receptions for 1,495 yards and set the school's career

record with 18. In 1988, he was inducted into the Alabama Circle of Champions and in 1999, he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Homan was selected by the

in the first round (20th overall) of the 1968 NFL Draft. In his three years with the team, his best season came in 1969, when he had 12 receptions for 240 yards (20 yard avg.) and no

s. He was a member of the

Super Bowl V Super Bowl V was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys to determine the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

team that lost to the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

. His preseason performances in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

won him the starting wide receiver job over

Bob Hayes Robert Lee Hayes (December 20, 1942 – September 18, 2002), nicknamed "Bullet Bob", was an Olympic gold medalist sprinter who then became an American football split end in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys (for 11 seasons). ...

for 5 games, before Hayes regained his starting job. When troubled

Lance Rentzel Thomas Lance Rentzel (born October 14, 1943) is a former American football flanker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, and Los Angeles Rams. He played college football at the University of Oklahoma. ...

was separated from the team, Homan was passed over by former

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Reggie Rucker Reginald Joseph Rucker (born September 21, 1947) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns ...

for the last two games of the regular season, the Cowboys' playoff drive and its narrow

loss to the

. At the end of the season, he asked to be traded, so he was sent to the

in exchange for wide receiver

Gloster Richardson Gloster Van Richardson (July 18, 1942 – February 27, 2020) was a professional American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, and Cleveland Browns. He played college football at Jack ...

Kansas City Chiefs

Homan decided to retire after experiencing two disappointing seasons and his trade requests were not being accepted by the

World Football League

He returned to professional

with the

of the

, where he became one of the league's top wide receivers. In 1974, he had 61 receptions for 930 yards, 8

s and 2 action points, helping the Americans finish with a 15-5 regular season record and the

championship. In 1975, the Americans were replaced as the Birmingham WFL franchise by a new team called the

. The WFL folded in mid-season, after he recorded 18 receptions for 277 yards, while playing in a run-oriented offense.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Homan, Dennis 1946 births Living people People from Muscle Shoals, Alabama Players of American football from Alabama American football wide receivers Alabama Crimson Tide football players All-American college football players Birmingham Americans players Birmingham Vulcans players Dallas Cowboys players Kansas City Chiefs players