DETROIT (UPI) -- Chuck Hughes, a 28-year-old wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, collapsed of an apparent heart attack on the field only a minute before the game was over yesterday and died less than an hour later.
Nearly 55,000 fans in the stadium and thousands of television viewers watched as Hughes was taken from the field in an ambulance.
He had collapsed on the Chicago Bear 15-yard line. No other players were near him.
Hughes was the fourth professional football fatality and the first to suffer an apparent heart attack on the field during a game.
Two team physicians administered oxygen and tried to revive Hughes with artificial respiration but he never regained consciousness.
His wife, Sharon, was at Ford Hospital when he was pronounced dead.
Dr. Richard A. Thompson, the Lions' team physician, told members of the team and newsmen of Hughes' death in the Detroit dressing room.
"I just talked to the hospital and they just pronounced him dead," Thompson said, obviously shaken. "We thought we had him when we got his heart going again, but . . .," Thompson said, but he was unable to finish the sentence.
William Clay Ford, owner and president of the Lions, said he was "just horrified and shocked" by the death.
He was a great player and a great person," said Ford in a voice breaking with emotion outside the Lions' dressing room.
All the artificial means known to man were used in an attempt to save Hughes' life. Team members left the dressing room somberly. Some wept openly.
Hughes was a little-used wide receiver acquired by Detroit just before the 1970 season. He had entered yesterday's game in the fourth quarter and was pinched severely between two Chicago defenders when he caught a 32-yard pass with 1:38 to play.
He remained in the game for three incomplete pass plays and was trotting back to the huddle when he collapsed.
The Lions' public relations director, Lyall Smith, said quarterback Greg Landry and other members of the team thought "everything seemed all right." An autopsy was scheduled for today.
Hughes is the fourth fatality in pro football history and the third victim of an apparent heart attack.
Dave Sparks of the Washington Redskins died in 1954 after a game with Cleveland and Stan Mauldin of the old Chicago Cardinals collapsed in the dressing room following a game with Philadelphia in 1948.
