Howard Ferguson Jr. (August 5, 1930 – December 18, 2005) 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 wi ...

player. He played as a fullback and halfback for six seasons 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 ...

(NFL) with the Green Bay Packers and one season in the American Football League (AFL) with the

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

Biography

Ferguson grew up in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, where he competed in football, basketball, baseball, and boxing at New Iberia High School. He enlisted in the Navy on Jan. 8, 1948 and served during the Korean War as a member of the frogman underwater demolition team. During the off-season he worked as an oil field worker in New Iberia. Although he never played college football, Ferguson was discovered while playing football for the Navy in California by a scout for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. (He had played football with the Navy League Amphibian Division and was an MVP, earning second-team All-Navy honors two years in a row.) After playing four years of service football, the Navy discharged Ferguson on Jan. 7, 1952, he signed with the Los Angeles Rams on June 11 and was waived on Sept. 19.Christl, C. (2019, February 14). Howie Ferguson. Hall of Famers. Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.packers.com/history/hof/howie-ferguson The Rams signed him but he was released prior to the 1952 season and then was signed by the Green Bay Packers as a free agent in 1953. The 6'2", 210-pound Ferguson gained 2,120 yards rushing and 1,079 yards receiving with the Packers between 1953 and 1958. In 1955 Ferguson had over 1,000 yards combined rushing and receiving for the Packers, earning him a spot on the Pro Bowl roster as a fullback alongside Heisman Trophy winner and NFL Rookie of the Year

Alan Ameche Alan Ameche (; June 1, 1933 – August 8, 1988), nicknamed "The Iron Horse", or simply "The Horse", was an American football player who played six seasons with the Baltimore Colts in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football ...

of the Baltimore Colts. Ferguson retired in 1959 after multiple injuries, but had a brief comeback in 1960 during the inaugural season of the

of the American Football League (AFL). In 1974 Howard Ferguson was inducted into the

Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

For more information, go to the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame history website: https://www.packers.com/history/hof/howie-ferguson

References

1930 births 2005 deaths American football fullbacks American football halfbacks Green Bay Packers players Los Angeles Chargers players Western Conference Pro Bowl players Sportspeople from New Iberia, Louisiana Players of American football from Louisiana {{runningback-1930s-stub https://www.packers.com/history/hof/howie-ferguson

Biography

See also

References