Top 50 Cal Pros: No. 29 -- Craig Morton, Twice a Super Bowl QB

Why we ranked him here: The fifth player and the first quarterback chosen in the 1965 NFL draft, Morton went on to become the first player to start at QB in the Super Bowl for two different teams. He played 18 seasons, including the first 9 1/2 with the Cowboys, where he was in competition with Don Meredith and Roger Staubach. He was 8-3 in 11 games as a starter in 1970, eventually leading the Cowboys to Super Bowl V, where they lost 16-13 to the Baltimore Colts. He fell out of favor with the Cowboys by 1974, asked for a trade and was sent to the New York Giants midseason. The Giants were 8-25 in his 2 1/2 seasons before he got a new life with the Denver Broncos starting in 1977. He passed for 1,929 yards and 14 touchdowns for a 12-2 team that season, finishing second in the MVP voting. He led the Broncos to a berth in Super Bowl XII against the Cowboys, but his old team had much the better of things, intercepting Morton four times in a 27-10 victory. Morton assembled his best statistical season as a 38-year-old in 1981, passing for career highs of 3,195 yards and 21 touchdowns, although he also was sacked a league-leading 54 times. He retired after playing in just three games in 1982 — the year before Denver drafted John Elway. Morton was 50-28 as a starter in five regular seasons with the Broncos, passing for 11,895 yards. For his career, Morton was 81-62-1 as a starter in the regular season, with 27,908 passing yards and 183 touchdowns. After his playing days, he coached the Denver Gold of the USFL and was the Broncos’ quarterbacks coach in 1988.

At Cal: Morton graduated from Campbell High School near San Jose, where he was such a good pitcher he received contract offers from major league teams. Instead, he played quarterback for Cal coach Marv Levy and top assistant Bill Walsh. Over his final two seasons, he threw TD passes in 16 consecutive games, including a school-record five vs. San Jose State. He blossomed as a senior in 1964, winning All-America honors and the Pop Warner Trophy as the best senior player on the West Coast. He finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy race — ahead of Joe Namath and Gale Sayers — despite playing for a 3-7 team. He passed for 2,121 yards — second-best in the nation — with 13 touchdowns. Morton finished his Cal career with 4,501 passing yards — a Pac-8 record at the time. Morton was inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame and the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.

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