{"id":252367,"date":"2026-04-16T10:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252367\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:20:12","slug":"dallas-cowboys-two-time-super-bowl-champion-dies-at-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252367\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys two-time Super Bowl champion dies at 77"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman John Fitzgerald has died, the organization has announced<\/a>. He was 77.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald played in the NFL from 1970 to 1981, spending all 12 of his pro football seasons with the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

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Prior to playing in the NFL, Fitzgerald starred on the offensive line and defensive line at Boston College. He was inducted into the BC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald was drafted by the Cowboys in the fourth round of the 1970 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

He earned the starting center job for Dallas in 1973 and held it through the 1980 season, before injuries sidelined him for the 1981 season. He then retired in January 1982.<\/p>\n

Across 12 seasons in the NFL<\/a>, Fitzgerald appeared in 137 games, making 109 starts.<\/p>\n

A Massachusetts native, Fitzgerald lined up at center for Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach. He handled the transition to a shotgun offense well, according to the Cowboys official site.<\/p>\n

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John Fitzgerald helped the Cowboys<\/a> reach the Super Bowl five times during his career and helped Dallas win a pair of Lombardi Trophies.<\/p>\n

He is described by the Cowboys site as being a part of “a great lineage of centers who have worn the Star, a group that includes Dave Manders, [Tom] Rafferty, who took over at center in 1981, Mark Stepnoski, Andre Gurode and Travis Frederick.”<\/p>\n

Read the original article on pennlive.com<\/a>. Add pennlive.com<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman John Fitzgerald has died, the organization has announced. He was 77. Fitzgerald played…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95457,20981,102,113,104,103,79379,95394,80,55392,49124,7698],"class_list":{"0":"post-252367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-bc-athletic-hall-of-fame","9":"tag-boston-college","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallas-headlines","13":"tag-dallas-news","14":"tag-defensive-line","15":"tag-john-fitzgerald","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-offensive-line","18":"tag-offensive-lineman","19":"tag-the-cowboys"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}