The football player
Fair was a 5th round draft choice of the Cleveland Browns in 1969. He went to college at Arizona State University. At ASU, Fair lettered in track and football. He was part of an impressive receivers corps at ASU. John Pitts and J.D. Hill would both be drafted in the first round by the Buffalo Bills, albeit 4 years apart. Larry Walton was drafted by the Detroit Lions the same year Hooker was. Pitts would play Safety for the Bills, while Hill earned 1 Pro Bowl berth. 1968 was Hookers biggest year on the ASU gridiron. He caught 42 passes for 665 yards. Both were school records at the time, and led the team. He also caught 6 touchdown passes. He was All-Wac that year too in track. He won the 120 yard hurdles with a time of 14 seconds.
One of his biggest NFL moments came in 1972. The Browns went 10-4 and earned a Wild Card berth. They faced the Miami Dolphins, who were in the midst of completing the only perfect season in modern day NFL history. Cleveland gave Miami all they could handle that day. Fair caught a big touchdown pass from Mike Phipps in the 4th quarter. This put the Browns up 14-13. Miami squeaked out a win on a late touchdown.
Fair Hooker played 6 seasons in the NFL. He didn't play much on offense his rookie year, catching 2 passes. He became a bigger part of the Browns offense by his second season. He caught 28 passes and scored the first 2 touchdowns of his career. His 3rd NFL season was in 1971. It turned out to be the best season of his career. He established his career highs in catches and reception yardage that year. He ended up with 45 catches for 649 yards. He scored once that year as well. He caught 32 passes the next season, to go with 2 touchdowns. Hooker got hurt in 1973, and caught 18 passes and scored twice. Fair was only able to play 7 games in 1974. He caught 4 passes and scored the last touchdown of his career. He retired after that season. In total, Fair Hooker had 129 receptions for 1,845 yards at a 14.3 YPC average. Hooker also scored 8 touchdowns.
Fair Hooker certainly has one of the most unique names in all of sports history.
He had an excellent career in sports as well.
2 comments:
indeed his name is unique! BTW great write up, specially leading up to MNF !!
Never heard of him. You are great at bringing the past forward.
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