![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greg-hawthorne-.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
FILE-Greg Hawthorne #27 of the Pittsburgh Steelers returns a kickoff during an NFL football game circa 1983 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Focus on Sport\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
Greg Hawthorne, a running back with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Super Bowl champion, died at the age of 69.<\/p>\n
Hawthorne\u2019s family announced the news of his passing on social media. His cause of death is unknown, according to\u00a0FOX Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n “On behalf of the Hawthorne family, it is with deep sadness that our brother Gregory Dale Hawthorne passed away last night,” a\u00a0Facebook post<\/a> read. “Please keep his mother and his children, his brother and sisters as well as the whole family in your prayers.”<\/p>\n Hawthorne was selected by the Steelers in the 1979 NFL Draft with the No. 28 pick overall out\u00a0of Fort Worth Polytechnic. He was a rookie when the Steelers beat the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV.<\/p>\n Who was Greg Hawthorne? <\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n Greg\u00a0Hawthorne played five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, as both running back and a wide receiver.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hawthorne appeared in 59 games, and accumulated 522 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns, and 55 receptions for 710 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n FOX Sports noted that he also played three years with the\u00a0New England Patriots and another with the Indianapolis Colts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hawthorne had a crucial play in the 1985 AFC Championship for the Patriots, recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half, and New England went on to win that game, punching their ticket to Super Bowl XX.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story was provided by FOX Sports and NFL.com. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n NFL<\/a>Sports<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FILE-Greg Hawthorne #27 of the Pittsburgh Steelers returns a kickoff during an NFL football game circa 1983…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1418,73,75,74,726],"class_list":["post-244370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}