Rayfield Wright, a mainstay on five Dallas Cowboys teams that reached the Super Bowl, died Thursday, April 7, 2022.

He was 76 and had been in failing health since suffering a seizure.

Known as “Big Cat” for his nimble feet, the 6-foot-7, 270-pound offensive lineman played on the Cowboys’ Super Bowl teams in 1970, 1971, 1975, 1977 and 1978.

Dallas was crowned the champion following the 1971 and 1977 seasons.

Mr. Wright also played in the famed “Ice Bowl” in the 1967 NFC Championship game at Green Bay, Wis. In temperatures of 13 degrees below zero, the Packers won on the final play of the game.

Mr. Wright was a six-time Pro Bowl selection, a three-time All-Pro and was named to the NFL Hall of Fame in 2006.

From Griffin, Ga., Mr. Wright followed a winding path from Fort Valley State University in Georgia to the Cowboys and the Hall of Fame. He was more about basketball in high school and went to Fort Valley State on a hoops scholarship. It wasn’t until his second year at the HBCU that he took up football.

A seventh round draft pick in the NFL’s 1967 draft, Mr. Wright went on to play from 1967 to 1979 with the Cowboys and with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1980. He played in a total of 166 NFL games.

His Cowboys teammates during the 1970s included future Hall of Famers Roger Staubach, Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro and Tony Dorsett.

Mr. Wright is one of 29 athletes from HBCUs to make the NFL Hall of Fame. The Fort Valley Wildcats now compete in the NCAA Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, or SIAC.