Baugh gets hero's send-off

ROTAN, Texas - Sammy Baugh, the NFL's original gunslinger, has been given a cowboy send-off. The last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class of 1963 was remembered by family and friends yesterday, 5 days after he died at 94.

A saddle and chaps were draped over his coffin at the front of First Baptist Church in Rotan. Baugh was taken by hearse to a cemetery, and a horse-drawn wagon awaited for the procession to the grave site.

As the hearse slowly approached the wagon, about a dozen black Brangus cattle sauntered to a nearby fence corner, almost as if the bovines Baugh loved to raise and ranch came to say their farewells.

Starting in the 1930s, Baugh turned the sparingly used forward pass into a potent weapon for the Redskins. He was also a standout punter and defensive back. *