University of Missouri Athletics

“Mo” Towns was one of the most accomplished offensive linemen on both the collegiate and professional levels in Tiger football history. He was a first-team all-American as a senior offensive tackle in 1976 when he helped pave the way for a potent offense that stood out in monumental road wins at eighth-ranked USC (46-25), at second-ranked Ohio State (22-21) and at third-ranked Nebraska (34-24) that season. Towns won his first letter as a sophomore, but really came into his own during his junior season and capped the year by more than holding his own against Oklahoma’s Leroy Selmon, who won the 1975 Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award and went on to become the No. 1 selection in the 1976 NFL Draft. Towns was selected to play in the Blue-Gray Classic, as well as the Hula Bowl and Japan Bowl after his senior year. He was a first-round NFL draft pick in 1977 by the Houston Oilers as the 11th-overall selection and went on to a solid nine-year career in the NFL, playing from 1978-83 with Houston, and from 1984-86 for the Washington Redskins. A standout engineering student at Mizzou, the St. Louis native has worked as a civil design engineer in Texas.