{"id":227573,"date":"2025-10-20T19:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T19:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227573\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T19:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T19:25:07","slug":"retired-nfl-player-warren-mcvea-who-won-a-super-bowl-with-the-chiefs-dies-at-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/227573\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired NFL Player Warren McVea, Who Won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs, Dies at 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW
\nWarren McVea, who won a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970, died at age 79McVea died on Sunday, Oct. 19 “surrounded by family members” in his home in Los AngelesMcVea was the first Black player to receive a football scholarship to a major Texas school<\/p>\n

The NFL is mourning the loss of former Super Bowl winner Warren McVea.\n<\/p>\n

McVea’s family confirmed to Houston Football<\/a> and NFL.com<\/a> on Oct. 20 that McVea, the first Black player to receive a football scholarship to a major Texas school, died at age 79 on Sunday, Oct. 19.\n<\/p>\n

McVea died at his home in Los Angeles “surrounded by family members,” his daughter Tracey Ellis told Houston Football.\n<\/p>\n

“Warren McVea was more than a football icon\u2014he was a pioneer who changed the face of American sports,” his family said in a statement on Monday, Oct. 20. “He lived with resilience, grace, and purpose. His legacy will continue to inspire not only athletes but anyone who has ever been told their dreams were impossible. We are honored to carry forward his name and his spirit.”\n<\/p>\n

Warren McVea in 1970.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Emmons\/USA TODAY<\/p>\n

A cause of death was not made available, but the statement said McVea, a member of the Kansas City Chiefs’ first Super Bowl-winning roster, died “after a long illness” on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, McVea helped lead his Brackenridge High School team to the state championship in 1962 before becoming a star running back at the University of Houston.\n<\/p>\n

In 1968, he was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, then of the American Football League.\n<\/p>\n

After one season in Cincinnati, McVea moved to the Chiefs and became a Super Bowl champion when the team defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.\n<\/p>\n

Houston Football mourned the loss of McVea in a post<\/a> on X on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n

“Warren \u2018Wondrous Warren\u2019 McVea peacefully passed away on Sunday,” the team said, calling him a “trailblazer in collegiate athletics” and a “forever Cougar.”\n<\/p>\n

While playing for the Cougars, McVea was the subject of death threats, the son of Houston’s coach Bill Yeoman once recalled<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

“Most people don’t understand that he got lots of death threats that were extremely serious when we started playing the teams that we played every year,” Bill Yeoman Jr., said. “There were many times Dad told him he didn’t have to play the first couple of years if he didn’t want to, That’s how serious the death threats were. And Warren just said, ‘Let’s go play.’ “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Warren McVea, who won a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970, died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-227573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}