Warren McVea, Super Bowl champion and pioneer football player, dead at 79

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Warren McVea, a former NFL running back who won a Super Bowl and a pioneer in Texas football, has died, his family said Sunday. He was 79.

Tracey Ellis, McVea’s daughter, said her father died at home in Los Angeles surrounded by family members after a long battle with an illness.

McVea was a standout running back and was the first Black player to receive a football scholarship to a major Texas school. He was a star player at Brackenridge High School in San Antonio, leading the school to a state championship in 1962.

He committed to the University of Houston where he played under head coach Bill Yeoman. He set a school record with 3,009 all-purpose yards in 1966. He had a 99-yard touchdown catch in the first football game played on artificial turf.

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“Warren ‘Wondrous Warren’ McVea peacefully passed away on Sunday,” the school said in a post on X. “A trailblazer in collegiate athletics. A forever Cougar.”

McVea turned pro in 1968 and was selected in the fourth round of the 1968 draft for the American Football League’s Cincinnati Bengals. He played one season with the Bengals before he joined the Kansas City Chiefs.

He was a part of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl-winning team in 1969. He played with Hall of Famer Len Dawson and split carries with Mike Garrett and Robert Holmes.