Lance Rentzel obit

Former Cowboys WR Lance Rentzel, talented but troubled, dies at age 82

Rentzel was one of the most popular Cowboys players before his infamous fall in the 1970s.

 

He was not on the list.

Lance Rentzel, an electrifying Cowboys receiver married to a TV star when his guilty plea to indecent exposure in 1971 wrecked their glamorous lifestyle, if not his career, died Sunday in Virginia, according to his obituary. He was 82.

Before his infamous fall, Rentzel had been one of the Cowboys’ most popular players. Fast, glib, tall and handsome, he seemed to have it all.

But underneath the “golden boy” image he described in his book, When All the Laughter Died in Sorrow, lay mental illness. He wrote the book at the suggestion of his doctor. In it he described the incidents that led to his exits from Minnesota and Dallas.

Cowboys teammates stood by Rentzel, at least initially, but after the player’s guilty plea in ’71, Tex Schramm traded him to the Rams in a three-way deal that netted them, among others, Lance Alworth, a former star receiver nearing his career’s end.

“We know we are giving up one of the top flankers in the league,” Tom Landry said at the time of the trade, “but I thought he would be better off in another city where he had the same opportunity regularly.

“We found this in Los Angeles, and it was one of the teams Lance wanted to be traded to if he were traded.”

Rentzel played two seasons for the Rams, neither of which met the standards he established in Dallas, before a police raid of his home resulted in his arrest for possession of marijuana. Because he was already on “probation” with the NFL for his guilty plea in Dallas, Pete Rozelle banned him for the ’73 season.

Rentzel came back in ’74 for a third tour with the Rams before retiring.

Born Oct. 14, 1943, in Queens, N.Y., to Del Rentzel, an airlines executive who served as the Department of Commerce’s Under Secretary for Transportation under Harry Truman, and Marjorie Rentzel, Lance grew up in Oklahoma City, where he graduated fifth in his high school class. His obituary notes he was accepted into Harvard, Princeton and Yale but chose Oklahoma in order to play football for Bud Wilkinson. He graduated with honors from OU in 1965 with a degree in mathematics.

He earned 12 varsity letters in four sports at OU, according to his obit, but excelled in football, where he played halfback, receiver and punter. He was named first-team All-Big Eight, then played in the Senior Bowl and College All-Star Game, and the Vikings made him the 23rd pick of the ’65 draft.

Early in his second injury-plagued season, he drove to a St. Paul, Minn., playground, where he exposed himself to two young girls. After Rentzel pleaded guilty and promised to seek psychiatric treatment, the charges against him were reduced to disorderly conduct. He received no jail time.

In return for a third-round pick, the Vikings traded him in the spring of ’67 to the Cowboys. The slow start to his NFL career picked up speed. Paired with Bob Hayes, Rentzel and the world’s fastest man provided Don Meredith and Craig Morton the NFL’s most explosive set of receivers.

Between 1967-69, Rentzel accumulated 2,965 yards and 26 touchdowns over 42 games. In ’69, he led the league in yards per catch at 22.3 and touchdowns with 12.

He caught 13 passes for 223 yards against Washington in 1967, a mark that ranks seventh in Cowboys history. His greater feat came later that season in the NFL Championship Game, when he caught a 50-yard pass from halfback Dan Reeves in the fourth quarter of the Ice Bowl, giving the Cowboys a short-lived lead over Green Bay.

Rentzel’s star-crossed tenure in Dallas would prove to be brief, however. On Nov. 30, 1970, he exposed himself to a 10-year-old girl in University Park. He was arrested four days later. His lawyers said he had been undergoing psychiatric treatment “for some time,” though it was unclear if it was part of the court-ordered treatment in Minnesota. He was sentenced to five years of probation and mandatory psychiatric care with no jail time.

Rentzel’s wife, Joey Heatherton, a popular entertainer, soon divorced him, though Rentzel said the reason for the split was less his “crime” than his “Let’s-have-some-laughs-and-forget-it” attitude afterward.

Rentzel’s book sold well, but at least one critic wasn’t kind. Pete Axthelm, writing for The New York Times, said it lacked any substantive answers.

“One can hope that the writing of it contributed to Lance Rentzel’s personal rehabilitation,” he wrote. “And one must wish just as fervently that he had never decided to publish it.”

Rentzel continued to write, according to his obit, and ventured into the burgeoning world of computers. He was the director of Compucorp’s office of government affairs in 1984 when the company provided the largest computer operation at the Republican National Convention in Dallas. He moved to Alexandria, Va., where he remained a government contractor.

He leaves brothers Del Rentzel and Chris Rentzel of Dallas, and a daughter, Jenny.

“To all who knew him,” his obit reads, “Lance was larger than life – hilariously funny, unfailingly optimistic and happy, warm in spirit, and deeply loyal. He formed many close relationships over the years, most notably the enduring bonds that he shared with his teammates.”

Rentzel was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round (23rd overall) of the 1965 NFL draft. He was also selected in the sixth round (48th overall) of the 1965 AFL draft by the Buffalo Bills. Rentzel played sparingly as a backup running back due to recurring injuries and his contributions came mainly as a kickoff returner during his first two seasons. Rentzel set the record for the longest kickoff return (101 yards) in franchise history as a rookie, which was broken by Aundrae Allison's 104-yarder in 2007 and Cordarrelle Patterson's 109-yarder in 2013.

On May 2, 1967, Rentzel was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a third-round draft choice (#76-Mike McGill). Rentzel was converted into a flanker, where he became not only an immediate starter over Pete Gent but also one of the best wideouts in the NFL. Rentzel led the team in receptions with 58 for 996 yards (two yards less than Bob Hayes). If Rentzel had gotten four more yards and Hayes two more, it would have been the first time in NFL history that a team had two 1,000-yard wide receivers. In the tenth game of the season against the Washington Redskins, Rentzel had 13 receptions for 233 yards. His 13 receptions set a franchise record and stood for 40 years until it was broken by Jason Witten in 2007. The 233 yards were good enough for third on the team at the time (now sixth). Rentzel also starred in the 1967 NFL Championship, known since as the "Ice Bowl", scoring a fourth-quarter, go-ahead touchdown later negated by the Green Bay Packers' game-clinching drive.

Career information

High school     Casady (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

College            Oklahoma

NFL draft        1965: 2nd round, 23rd overall pick

AFL draft        1965: 6th round, 48th overall pick

Career history

Minnesota Vikings (1965–1966)

Dallas Cowboys (1967–1970)

Los Angeles Rams (1971–1974)

Awards and highlights

NFL receiving touchdowns leader (1969)

Second-team All-Big Eight (1964)

Career NFL statistics

Receptions       268

Receiving yards          4,826

Rushing yards 196

Return yards    1,000

Total touchdowns        42