Texas Tech football Hall of Famer Ed Mooney relishes his NFL team's success

Earlier this month, when the Detroit Lions ended a 31-year drought without a playoff victory, NFL fans with no particular rooting interest suddenly had a bandwagon option.

On Sunday, Detroit will play at San Francisco in the NFC championship game, and it'll hold special interest for Ed Mooney. The former Texas Tech football linebacker played seven years in pro football, mostly in Detroit at a time when the Lions were good.

"Today, since they're in the playoffs coming up this weekend, being a Detroit Lion or former Lion is not all bad," said Mooney, a Lubbock resident since 1996. "Now, there's been years I could not say that. Matter of fact, about 30 of them. So, yeah, this is kind of special."

Mooney played for the Lions from 1968-72, for the Baltimore Colts in 1973 and for the World Football League's Houston Texans in 1974. The Lions posted winning records the last four of his five years in Detroit, including 9-4-1 and 10-4 in 1969 and 1970.

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Mooney was teammates in Detroit with four future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame: defensive tackle Alex Karras, defensive backs Lem Barney and Dick LeBeau and tight end Charlie Sanders.

Mooney played in every game from 1968-71, much of his value coming on special teams, especially kick coverage. He spent 1972 on injured reserve and was traded to Baltimore right before the start of the '73 season. As a Lions linebacker, Mooney was stuck behind Wayne Walker, Mike Lucci and Paul Naumoff, each of whom played more than a decade in the NFL and made the Pro Bowl at least once.

Baltimore, though only 4-10 in Mooney's season with the Colts, still had a formidable linebacker unit led by future Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks and four-time Pro Bowl honoree Mike Curtis.

"I was a journeyman," Mooney said, "but I was able to be on teams with some of the best guys that ever played, offensively and defensively, in the league.

"One regret I had going to Baltimore: (Johnny) Unitas was not there when I got there. They let him go in the offseason before. But there was also John Mackey and Tom Matte and a handful of other great ones during those Baltimore years. ... Yeah, very, very fortunate to play when I played, I promise you."

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World Series triumph, Lions' promise made late '60s memorable time in Detroit

The summer of '68 was an exciting time for a player to land in Detroit. The Central Division had the Green Bay Packers coming off victories in the first two Super Bowls and the Minnesota Vikings on the rise with the Purple People Eaters. Even the mediocre Chicago Bears had the legendary Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus.

The Lions held their own in the Black and Blue Division, but failed to advance in the playoffs. The 1970 season was perhaps the most painful with Detroit losing a divisional playoff game 5-0 to the Dallas Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl.

"Offensively, we were very strong and defensively we thought, (Don) Meredith is the quarterback and he was not going to beat us," Mooney said. "And we did not score a touchdown, got beat 5 to nothin'."

Not only were the Lions winning during those years, but when Mooney joined the team as a fourth-round draft pick in 1968, the Tigers won the World Series that October. It was the year Denny McLain won 31 games, a single-season victory total unmatched by a Major League pitcher since. Tiger Stadium was the home field for both teams.

"I vividly remember walking into the locker room my rookie year," Mooney said, "and the baseball team was packing up their stuff and moving out and there was Al Kaline sitting there and Norm Cash."

Today the population of Detroit has dwindled to less than 700,000. In the late 1960s, it was about 1.5 million.

"A rough, lunchbox town, and that was your crowd," Mooney said. "It was a rough, tough atmosphere, and we played like it."

Motor City citizens had a lot of stars to cheer for. Mooney was inducted into the Texas Tech athletics Hall of Fame in 2018, as much for his achievements as a thrower in track and field as what he did in football. However, his size — he played at 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds — and athletic ability led the Lions to draft him with the 93rd overall pick.

Hall of Fame and Pro Bowl teammates marked Ed Mooney's experience with Detroit Lions

He walked into a locker room that comprised a who's who.

Karras, one of the NFL's roughest and toughest defensive tackles, was starting his 11th year in Detroit.

"He was one of these guys that, when we were playing the Packers or the Bears or maybe the Vikings, you knew in the locker room before the game, it was war," Mooney said. "Now, if we were playing Buffalo or Pittsburgh or somebody like that, Alex would be over there in a locker across the locker room smoking a cigar, reading the newspaper. True story. We're getting ready to go out on the field in a few minutes."

Barney came into the league one year before Mooney and wound up being selected for the Pro Bowl seven times in 11 seasons. When Barney was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992, Mooney attended.

"He could have played in any era," Mooney said. "He was amazing."

The other Hall of Famer in the Lions' secondary at the time was LeBeau, who made the Pro Bowl three times in 14 seasons, all with Detroit. LeBeau finished with 62 career interceptions, Barney with 56. Based on what Mooney observed on a daily basis, it should have been no surprise that LeBeau became a respected NFL coach from 1973 through 2017.

"Dick could not run 5-flat in the 40," Mooney said, "but he was so smart that he would bait people into thinking he was covering that guy on the other side, and Dick had a lot of interceptions because he was so much smarter than the quarterbacks and the wide receivers we were playing against."

Detroit drafted Mooney as an eventual replacement for Walker, who was going into his 11th NFL season. Eventual turned out to be a long time, as Walker wound up playing 15 seasons, all in Detroit, and making the Pro Bowl three times.

"I learned a lot from Wayne, had a lot of respect for him," Mooney said. "He liked me a lot, a young kid coming to Detroit in '68."

Ed Mooney and his wife, Sharan, a Monterey graduate, have been married for 55 years. They wed after his rookie season in Detroit.

On Sunday, Mooney's hoping the new Lions can accomplish where his teams fell short.

"Obviously, there's pride," he said. "When you spend five or six years at a team, that gives you a chance to be embedded in their history. Sitting here today, knowing they're going to get a chance to go out to San Francisco and take on (what) most people think is the best team in the league, the 49ers, I'll be watching that like I haven't watched a football game of interest and pride in a long, long time."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football Hall member Ed Mooney relishes Detroit Lions' success