These days, it’s top-of-the-page news when a Kansas University football player hears his name called on the first day of the NFL Draft.
That’s what makes the 1977 NFL Draft so special. In terms of quality and quantity, it was absolutely the best in KU history.
Seven KU players were tapped in the first eight rounds that spring, including a first-rounder and two second-rounders.
The first-round pick was Mike Butler, a 6-foot-6, 270-pound defensive tackle taken by the Green Bay Packers. A native of Washington, D.C., Butler started for six years, leading the Pack in sacks twice.
Nolan Cromwell and Terry Beeson were the Jayhawks who went in Round Two.
Cromwell, it was speculated, would have been a first-rounder if he a) hadn’t suffered a knee injury midway through his senior year and b) hadn’t played quarterback in a Wishbone offense.
Regardless, Cromwell would turn out to be the best of the ’77 bunch, starting at free safety for 13 years (1977-88) for the Los Angeles Rams. A product of tiny Ransom High out on the plains of Western Kansas, Cromwell now is an assistant coach with the Seattle Seahawks, the team that went for Beeson in the same round.
Beeson, a 6-foot-3, 240-pounder, was the Seahawks’ starting middle linebacker for five seasons. And a good one, too. When Lofa Tatupu led Seattle in tackles last season, Tatupu was trumpeted as the first rookie to lead the Seahawks in stops since Beeson in 1977.
A knee injury and, some said, union activism shortened Beeson’s pro career. Today, Beeson lives in his native Coffeyville, where he has an insurance-financial services company.
Laverne Smith, the fastest KU running back I’ve ever seen – bar none – was the next to go. The quicksilver Smith, a Wichita Southeast product, was chosen in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Smith might have become one of the best kickoff-return men in NFL history if he hadn’t shattered a leg – it was broken in five places – while returning a kick in the eighth game. Smith never played again.
In the fifth round, the Philadelphia Eagles took Skip Sharp, a 5-11, 170-pound cornerback out of Kansas City Washington. Sharp had led the Big Eight with six interceptions the previous fall, but he never played in a regular-season NFL game.
Neither did Chris Golub, a safety who was taken in the seventh round by the Kansas City Chiefs. Golub was cut by the Chiefs in preseason, and the Shawnee Mission North product also failed to stick with the Chicago Bears in 1978. Then, tragically, on Nov. 12, 1978, Golub was killed in a car accident on Kansas Highway 7 north of Olathe.
After going for Golub in the seventh round, the Chiefs opted for KU wide receiver Waddell Smith – no relation to Laverne – in the eighth round.
Smith didn’t make it with K.C., but the Los Angeles native emigrated to Canada, where he became a standout for the Edmonton Eskimos. In ’79, Smith was named the most outstanding player in the CFL’s Western Conference.
Those are the seven of ’77. They were KU’s finest class of draftees.
