Welcome back to our series on the best Dallas Cowboys players to wear every jersey number from No. 0 to No. 99.
After closing out our single-digit entries with a couple of guys (and extremely easy calls) who used their arms for a living in Troy Aikman and Tony Romo, the first of our 90 double-digit entries revolves around a player who relied on his right foot.
But before we get to the big reveal here at No. 10, let's first have a look at every player who's worn it for America's Team over the years.
- Jimmy Armstrong, DB
- Tavon Austin, WR
- Jon Baker, K
- Barry Cantrell, P
- Duane Cantrell, P
- Reggie Collier, QB
- Filip Filipovic, P
- Skyler Green, WR
- Joe Milton, QB
- Cooper Rush, QB
- Ryan Switzer, WR
- Ron Widby, P
If forced to pick a runner-up here, the call would be Cooper Rush, who originally wore No. 7 with the team from 2017 to 2019 but switched to No. 10 when he returned to the team in 2020 following a short stint with the New York Giants earlier that year.
He didn't take a regular-season snap that year, but from 2021 to 2024, he started 14 games in place of an injured Dak Prescott, going a respectable 9-5.
But our big winner here is punter Ron Widby, who was actually the first in franchise history to wear No. 10. He only did so, however, after playing another professional sport.
Ron Widby played a year in the ABA before joining the Dallas Cowboys as a punter
For those unfamiliar with Widby, this guy was a ridiculous athlete who played baseball, golf, basketball, and football at the University of Tennessee.
A quarterback in high school who just also happened to punt (and play safety), the Knoxville native broke his arm as a senior.
So, when he got to the UT campus in 1963, he intended to put his focus into basketball and didn't even attend practice with the freshman football team (back then, freshmen couldn't play varsity in any sport) until the two coaching staffs worked out a deal where he would just join the football team as a punter.
And Widby ultimately excelled at both sports. As a junior, he was an All-SEC selection in basketball. And as a senior, he was named a First-Team All-American in football after leading the nation with an average of 43.8 yards per punt.
Not only did he earn a second straight All-SEC selection in basketball, but he was also named SEC Player of the Year after averaging 22.1 points per game and leading the Vols to their first conference title in more than two decades.
In 1967, he was taken in three different professional drafts, going in the fourth round of the NFL/AFL draft at No. 87 overall to the New Orleans Saints, somewhere in the first five rounds of the ABA draft to the New Orleans Buccaneers (the round isn't known, as it was somewhat of a secret draft), and in Round 12 at No. 126 overall to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA draft.
While Widby wanted to play basketball, the Saints offered him $50,000 to come to the NFL, which he took. But they cut him before the season began.
Widby then signed on with the Cowboys, who assigned him to the Oklahoma City Plainsmen of the short-lived Continental Football League, which ran from 1965 to 1969 and served as somewhat of a minor-league system for some NFL and AFL franchises if the terms worked out for all leagues involved.
He made his NFL debut with Dallas in 1968, but not before playing 20 games during the 1967-68 ABA season with the aforementioned New Orleans Buccaneers, for whom he averaged 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds.
Widby initially wore No. 12 in that '68 campaign, during which he set a Cowboys record that still stands to this day with an 84-yard punt against none other than the Saints.
But Widby gave up that jersey number ahead of the 1969 season to Roger Staubach, who was set to finally join the team after resigning his commission from the U.S. Navy after several years of service.
Widby wore No. 10 for the next three seasons, and in his final year with the team in 1971, he earned his lone Pro Bowl selection after averaging 41.6 yards per punt and got himself some hardware after Dallas defeated the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl 6.
A year earlier, in the Cowboys' loss to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl 5, he punted nine times, which stood as a Super Bowl record for three decades until he was surpassed twice in Super Bowl 35, with the Baltimore Ravens' Kyle Richardson recording 10, and the New York Giants' Brad Maynard tallying 11.
Dallas dealt Widby to the Green Bay Packers ahead of the 1972 season, but his career came to an abrupt end after he suffered a ruptured spinal disc late in the 1973 campaign. His 10,320 punting yards during his four-year run with the Cowboys remain the eighth-most in team history, and his 41.8-yard average is still good for sixth among those with at least 100 punts.
Other Dallas Cowboys jersey honorees
- No. 0: Well, there's literally only one option here
- No. 1: Quietly one of Dallas' better special teams weapons
- No. 2: He once stood alone in the record books
- No. 3: This player needed just one season to make his mark
- No. 4: This is a no-brainer
- No. 5: This player has the third-most points in Cowboys history
This list will be updated daily until all 100 entries are complete, so please be sure to bookmark this page or check back in with The Landry Hat for updates.
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