MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Fulton Walker, a 1980 captain on Don Nehlen’s first West Virginia team who later became the first player to return a Super Bowl kickoff for a touchdown, died in his Eastern Panhandle hometown Wednesday. He was 58.
“Fulton passed away of cardiac arrest and in fact, he was on his tractor on his farm cutting hay,” close friend Rick Pill said Thursday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Walker was known as much for his giving back to his hometown community as he was for his sports prowess, according to Pill.
“Fulton was a man of big faith and a big heart and great humility,” Pill said.
Walker made 194 career tackles and five interceptions as a Mountaineers defensive back, though he switched to running back his sophomore season and rushed for 392 yards and two touchdowns.
He added three punt-return scores, including an 88-yarder against Boston College in 1977 that remains the second-longest in school history.
Those special teams skills earned Walker a spot in trivia lore during Super Bowl XVII when his 98-yard runback for the Dolphins provided the first kick-return score in the title game.
Walker, a sixth-round draft pick, played for Miami from 1981-1985 and parts of two seasons with the Los Angeles Raiders.
In recent years, he was part of a disability plan for retired NFL players, Pill said. He had dealt with a number of medical issues most related to his playing days.
A four-sport star at Martinsburg High School, Walker was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates but chose to attend WVU where he played football and baseball. According to his online bio, Walker obtained an education degree along with a master’s in safety management.
Greg Hunter, of Blue and Gold News and MetroNews Sports, said Walker was one of several talented players successfully recruited by former Mountaineers coach Frank Cignetti with the promise of a new football stadium. Those players laid the foundation for a stronger program under Nehlen, Hunter said.
“If it were not for them is that fountain laid? Even with the new stadium does this thing get turned around? Is West Virginia now in the AAC, or a non-Power 5 conference because they were a middling program for the next 20, 30 years?”
A 20-by-20-foot photograph of Walker’s Super Bowl highlight has long been on display in the Martinsburg football facility. He returned to the school as a junior varsity baseball coach and football assistant.
Since 2014 the West Virginia Sports Writers Association has recognized the Fulton Walker Special Teams Player of the Year among its postseason honors.