Howard Twilley, a key receiver for the Miami Dolphins during the team’s perfect 1972 season and a Heisman Trophy runner-up at the University of Tulsa, died on Wednesday. He was 81.
An announcement of his death by a Tulsa spokesperson did not say where Twilley died or cite a cause.
Twilley caught a touchdown pass in Super Bowl VII against Washington as Miami rolled to a 14-7 victory to cap a 17-0 season. He also played for the Dolphins team that repeated as Super Bowl champions the next season.
Though relatively undersized as a wide receiver, at 5 feet 10 inches and 185 pounds, he had a solid 11-year pro career, all of it in Miami, that lasted until 1976, finishing with 212 receptions for 3,064 yards and 23 touchdowns.
At Tulsa, Twilley put up remarkable numbers in the mid-1960s, an era when college teams usually stuck to the ground game. He caught 261 passes for 3,343 yards and 32 touchdowns. His Tulsa record for career yards receiving stood until Keylon Stokes broke it in 2022.
In 1965, Twilley was the Heisman runner-up to Southern California’s Mike Garrett. He had 134 catches for 1,779 yards that season, N.C.A.A. records that stood for more than two decades.
In one game, against Louisville, he caught five touchdown passes and had 230 yards receiving. He also had 267 yards on 16 catches against Memphis, 242 yards on 18 receptions against Southern Illinois, 226 yards on 14 catches against Cincinnati, and 214 yards on 19 catches against Colorado State.
Twilley was the captain of the Academic All-America team in 1965 and the Most Valuable Player of the 1966 Senior Bowl.
The Minnesota Vikings selected him in the 14th round of the 1966 National Football League draft, and Miami chose him in the 12th round of the American Football League draft. He chose the Dolphins, a first-year team.
Howard James Twilley Jr. was born on Dec. 25, 1943, in Houston. Information on survivors was not immediately available.
After leaving football, he owned and operated sporting goods stores in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. He considered running for Congress in Oklahoma in 1994 but chose instead to support another former Tulsa receiver, Steve Largent, who ran as a Republican and won a seat in the House of Representatives, which he held for four terms.
Twilley was inducted into the Tulsa Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984, the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1995. Tulsa has retired his jersey, No. 81 — the same number he wore in Miami.
