UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Tom Rafferty, a former Penn State Football standout and 1975 team captain, passed away on Friday, June 6 at the age of 70.
Rafferty, a guard who lettered for the Nittany Lions from 1973-75, was named a first-team All-American during the 1975 season. A native of Fayetteville, N.Y., Rafferty was selected to the first team by The Football News and the Football Writers Association of America. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1976 NFL Draft and played his entire career with the Dallas Cowboys (1976-89).
From 1973-75, the years in which Rafferty lettered, Penn State went a combined 31-5 with three-straight Top-10 finishes. The 1973 team went undefeated at 12-0, capped by an Orange Bowl win over LSU and a Heisman Trophy for John Cappelletti. In 1974, the Nittany Lions defeated Baylor in the Cotton Bowl and finished 10-2. The 1975 squad posted a 9-3 mark, highlighted by dominant wins over West Virginia and Maryland.
Rafferty, who appeared in two Super Bowls, was a starting guard on Dallas' Super Bowl XII winning team and played the position for four seasons. He then played the final nine years at center for Cowboys.
After a 14-year career, he retired after the 1989 season. He played with quarterbacks Roger Staubach, Danny White and Troy Aikman during his Cowboy career. He currently is sixth in team history with 203 career games played and his 182 starts are fourth-most in Cowboys history, behind only Jason Witten, Ed "Too Tall" Jones and Emmitt Smith.
He is survived by his wife, their son and daughter and two grandchildren.