HOMETOWN SPORTS · AMITYVILLE

John Hugh Niland was born on a leap day — February 29, 1944 — and grew up to be the best football player Amityville ever produced.

He died August 15 at his home in McKinney, Texas, surrounded by family. He was 82.

He started as an All-State fullback at Amityville Memorial High School. By the time he left the University of Iowa he was an All-American offensive lineman, and in 1966 the Dallas Cowboys took him fifth overall — the first offensive lineman the franchise had ever spent a first-round pick on.

What followed was eleven years and one of the best interior lines of its era: six Pro Bowls, three All-Pro selections, two NFC championships, and Super Bowl VI, a 24-3 win over Miami. He finished his career with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Cowboys, in their statement, called him a team-first player at the core of Tom Landry’s greatest teams.

He went into the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and Iowa’s in 2006. The one that never came was Canton, and people who watched him play have never quite let that go.

“When you put Niland against some of the people that played his position or were offensive linemen,” former Cowboys personnel director Gil Brandt once said, “I think he deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as much or more than a lot of those people that are there.”

The Long Island memories that surfaced after his death were not about the Super Bowl. Butch Devine, who went through grade school, high school and Iowa alongside him, remembered the two of them driving the eighteen hours from Iowa City back to Amityville, stopping only for gas.

His family has made him a Legacy Donor. His brain goes to the Boston University CTE Center, for research into what the game does to the people who play it.

They also thanked Jackie, his full-time caregiver of more than six years, calling her an invaluable friend to John and to the family.

A Celebration of Life is set for Saturday, October 17 at 11 a.m. Central at Grace Bible Church, 11306 Inwood Road, Dallas. It is open to the public and will be livestreamed on the church’s YouTube channel. In place of cards, the family is asking for photographs, video and stories, sent to nilandmgmt@gmail.com.

If you have a memory of him from Amityville, that is where it should go.

Sources: Greater Long Island · Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame