HOF Artifact of the Week

These shoes were worn by Danny Villanueva who was the place kicker and punter for the Dallas Cowboys in the "Ice Bowl" or 1967 NFL Championship Game. The “Ice Bowl” would be the final game of Villanueva’s eight-year career (1960-1964 Los Angeles Rams and 1965-1967 Dallas Cowboys) in the NFL.

Villanueva was known as a “straight ahead” kicker which was the common technique of the era. Notice the flat front of his kicking shoe. Besides kicking the only field goal (21 yards) in the “Ice Bowl,” Villanueva’s greatest success came in the business world.

He was cofounder of Univision the leading Spanish language networks in the United States. He began his career in television in 1962 as Sportscaster for KMEX, which was a small Spanish language station in Los Angeles, to boost his meager player income. To work there he had to re-learn Spanish.

He later became owner of Spanish International Communications Corporation which was bought by Hallmark in 1987 for $260 million and renamed Univision. He remained at Univision until 1990. He later acquired financial interests in Univision’s rival Telemundo and LA Aztecs and LA Galaxy soccer. Amazingly Villanueva was born in a two room hut in New Mexico to Mexican Missionaries.