Tony Dale Galbreath (born January 29, 1954) is a former

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 ...

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 ...

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) for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

, and the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

and was drafted in the second round of the

1976 NFL Draft The 1976 National Football League draft was an annual player selection meeting held April 8–9, 1976, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, New York. The draft lasted 17 rounds, with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks m ...

. Galbreath was an All-Big Eight running back for the Missouri Tigers in 1974. He was elected team captain for the 1975 season and still ranks among the Tigers' all-time leading rushers, despite the fact that he played just two years of football after transferring from Indian Hill (

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

) Junior College. Galbreath was a rookie in 1976 with the New Orleans Saints and was part of the "Thunder and Lightning" backfield, along with Saints' first round pick

Chuck Muncie Harry Vance "Chuck" Muncie (March 17, 1953 − May 13, 2013) was an American professional football player who was a running back for the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers in the National Football League (NFL) from 1976 to 1984. He was ...

. Galbreath quickly became one of the top pass-catching running backs in the NFL. As a rookie, he was the NFL's sixth leading receiver. In 1978, his third season with the Saints, he finished second in the NFL in receiving. He played with the Saints for five seasons, and when he left the Saints, he ranked second in all-time rushing yards for the team. Galbreath was traded to the Minnesota Vikings in 1981. He played three years for the Vikings, primarily as a pass-catching back and blocker. Galbreath went to the New York Giants in 1984, essentially fulfilling the same role. He played four seasons with the Giants, including the 1986 season in which the Giants won the Super Bowl (

Super Bowl XXI Super Bowl XXI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the ...

), as Galbreath was the team's second leading receiver. He retired after the 1987 season as the most prolific pass-catching running back in NFL history. Galbreath was enshrined in the University of Missouri Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995. Galbreath was enshrined in the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2013, he was enshrined in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Galbreath's family resides in Fulton.

References

1954 births Living people People from Fulton, Missouri American football running backs University of Missouri alumni Missouri Tigers football players New Orleans Saints players Minnesota Vikings players New York Giants players {{Runningback-1950s-stub