CHUCK HUGHES — AN NFL TRAGEDY
When Lions receiver Chuck Hughes collapsed while walking back to the huddle after an incomplete pass late in the Bears’ 28-23 victory over the Lions on Oct. 24, 1971, at Tiger Stadium, Bears linebacker Dick Butkus was the first to realize something was terribly wrong.
Hughes, 28, suffered a fatal heart attack. As it turned out, he had an undetected heart ailment.
Butkus recounted the grim scene in his 1972 book, “Stop-Action”:
“They were driving down the field. It was a thirddown pass play to someone else [Charlie Sanders]. Walking back toward the huddle, I looked back to see where everyone was . . . He was walking back toward us, all of a sudden he started to stagger and fell to his knees, then to his hands, then he just sprawled out. His face was toward me. Everyone thought the guy was faking, stalling for a timeout, but I saw his eyes . . . they were rolling back. He couldn’t fake that. I turned and signaled the Lions bench. The officials were coming over, then they were running. The doctors were running. They were working on him, trying to get his heart going, pounding his chest with their fists.
“When they carried Chuck Hughes off the field, I knew he was dead. I thought, if I had to go, that’s the way I’d want to go, right on the field, because there is nothing else I want to do . . . . I said a prayer for Chuck Hughes. Our Father who art in heaven . . . I never thought of the words like that before . . . I said a prayer for all of us. Hail Mary full of grace . . . It was like the first time I had ever said those words.”