.png) Cunningham at Clemson in 1975 | |||||||||
| No. 89 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Tight end | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | December 23, 1954 Laurens, South Carolina, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died: | April 23, 2018 (aged 63) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 254 lb (115 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Seneca (Seneca, South Carolina) | ||||||||
| College: | Clemson | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1976 / Round: 1 / Pick: 28 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Player stats at NFL.com · PFR | |||||||||
Bennie Lee Cunningham, Jr. (December 23, 1954 – April 23, 2018[1]) was an American professional football player who was a tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). Cunningham was selected out of the Clemson University in the 1976 NFL Draft by the Steelers.[2] During his career, he played in 118 games and caught 202 receptions for 2,879 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Cunningham's most famous play in the NFL was a game-winning touchdown in a Pittsburgh home game versus divisional rival Cleveland on September 24, 1978. It came on a flea-flicker play, culminating in a pass from Terry Bradshaw to Cunningham, who caught the ball in the back right corner of the end zone. It gave the Steelers a dramatic 15–9 victory over the Browns in sudden-death overtime.
On April 23, 2018, Cunningham died at age 63 at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where he had been fighting cancer for about three months.