By Tracy Gupton
Columbia Heritage Foundation President
With the death of original Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Billy Howton on August 4th in Houston, a former West Columbia High School graduate may now be the oldest living NFL player. Howton was 95 when he passed away 10 days ago in a Houston memory care facility. That leaves Howton’s teammate with both the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys, James Ray Smith of West Columbia, as the oldest (or at least one of the oldest) living former NFL players. Smith is 93, born February 27, 1932.
When Billy Howton retired from the NFL after the 1963 season with the Dallas Cowboys, the Littlefield, Texas, native was the NFL’s all-time leading receiver. Although his career receptions mark was soon surpassed after his retirement, Howton goes down in history as being associated with several firsts. In 1950, he scored the first touchdown at Rice University’s new football stadium in Houston on a 65-yard pass reception. He was an All-American in 1951. After leaving Rice without graduating, Howton was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the second round of the 1952 NFL college draft.
In 1957, Billy Howton caught the first touchdown pass at Green Bay’s New City Stadium, which is now better known as Lambeau Field. In his rookie year with the Packers, Howton became the first rookie receiver to gain more than 1,000 yards in a season in an era when NFL teams only played 12 games in the regular season. He led the NFL with 1,231 receiving yards in 1952.
And Billy Howton was the first president of the National Football League players’ union in 1958. In 1956, Howton again led the league in receiving yardage, with 1,188 yards on 55 receptions, and was named an All-Pro for the first time. He earned that honor again the next season and was selected to play in the Pro Bowl four times in his NFL career.
A 1951 graduate of the old West Columbia High School, James Ray Smith followed his memorable sports career with the Roughnecks by becoming an All-American lineman with the Baylor Bears. Smith was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987 and was one of the first inductees into Columbia High School’s Athletics Hall of Honor in 2007, joined by his fellow former NFL players Dennis Gaubatz, a 1958 graduate of WCHS, and the two Charlies, Charlie Davis and Charlie Johnson, both 1970 Columbia High School grads who starred on the 1969 Roughnecks football team that advanced all the way to the Class 3A state championship game, which was played in Waco where James Ray Smith had played his college football games when he was a student at Baylor University in the 1950s.
Smith, who still resides in the Dallas area today, was a sixth round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns in 1954. The Browns, coached by the legendary Paul Brown, had won back-to-back NFL championships in 1954 and 1955. James Ray was serving in the U.S. Army and missed out on playing in those two championship games. He was the starting left guard blocking for Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown for several seasons in Cleveland, including the late Jim Brown’s outstanding rookie season in 1957 when the Browns were defeated 59-14 in the NFL championship game by the Detroit Lions.
When James Ray Smith retired from the NFL at the age of 32, he could look back on a pro football career that included being named First Team All-Pro three times (in 1959, 1960 and 1961) and playing in five Pro Bowls (1958 through 1962). The former Baylor Bear great closed out his NFL career with two seasons with the Cowboys in his home state of Texas. Billy Howton was in his final NFL season in 1963 when James Ray Smith became his teammate on the Cowboys. Smith appeared in 93 regular season games in the NFL and several postseason games with the Browns. He and Howton were teammates in Cleveland in 1959, which was Billy Howton’s lone season with the Browns. Howton joined the Cowboys the following year. 1960 was the Dallas Cowboys first season in the NFL.
Like Howton, the NFL Hall of Fame still eludes James Ray Smith who many would surmise his three years as an All-Pro and appearances in five Pro Bowls should be enough to earn the former Roughneck entrance into the hallowed Hall. Howton is in the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame as well as the Rice Owls Hall of Fame. The receiving records Howton held at the time of his retirement after the 1963 season with Dallas were soon erased by NFL Hall of Famer Raymond Berry. Johnny Unitas’s primary passing target with the Baltimore Colts surpassed Howton’s career receptions total in 1964 and eventually Berry broke Howton’s career receiving yards total in 1966. When Howton retired his career receiving yardage was 8,459 on 503 career receptions with the Packers, Browns and Cowboys.
Smith is also a member of the Cleveland Browns and Baylor Bears’ Halls of Fame. He and Howton, known as “The Rice Rocket,” were both multi-sport standouts in their respective Texas high schools in the late 1940s. Howton at Littlefield High School (near Lubbock) and Smith at West Columbia High School, excelled in basketball and track as well as football.
Naomi Smith, the sister-in-law of James Ray Smith, said at Monday night’s Columbia Historical Museum board meeting that her brother-in-law (Naomi is the widow of James Ray’s older brother Ed Smith) had told her in a recent telephone conversation that he was now the oldest living former NFL player, with the passing of his former teammate Billy Howton. Whether that is true or not would take some research. But, according to Naomi Smith, James Ray is still in good health at the age of 93 and the College Football Hall of Famer still gets around well. His high school classmate and fellow former Roughnecks multi-sport athlete Sandy Weems is in the same boat. Sandy, who also graduated from West Columbia High School in 1951, was in attendance Wednesday at the weekly West Columbia Rotary Club meeting and is looking forward to reaching his 92nd birthday. May they both live forever!
