Arizona Wildcats: Top 30 athletes in school history
Darryll Lewis played Arizona football in the 1980’s and then moved on to the NFL where he played for ten seasons.
Darryll ‘D-Lew’ Lewis is a 10-year NFL veteran cornerback who was invited to the Pro-Bowl in 1995. Lewis played cornerback for three teams. He was drafted by the Houston Oilers in the second round (38th overall) of the 1991 NFL Draft and played for them for the next eight years. Following his stint with the Oilers, Lewis moved on to play two seasons with the San Diego Chargers and signed with the Denver Broncos in 2001 but was released due to a knee problem, so he retired.
In Lewis’s NFL career, he caught a total of 32 interceptions, which he returned for 555 yards scoring five touchdowns, made five sacks and recovered eight fumbles, which he returned for 139 yards and one touchdown.
Lewis played at the University of Arizona from 1987-1990 under head coach Dick Tomey. He started out in his freshman year as a running back, but the Wildcats secondary coach Daune Akina moved him to cornerback the following year.
Zona Zealots staff writer Brad Malone paid homage to Lewis by writing about one his favorite games in Wildcats history. The game he wrote about was the Arizona vs. Oregon game in 1990, a game which propelled Lewis to eventually being awarded the Jim Thorpe award given to the best defensive back in college football. Lewis was also a consensus All-American and was one of two players who earned the Pac-10 co-Defensive Player of the Year award.
Here’s an excerpt from Malone’s article:
"Coming from the back of the end zone, Lewis had a long way to go to make a play. It was so nerve-racking. It looked like Musgrave was going to ruin the Cats Pac-10 opener. Then Lewis came out of nowhere, knocking Musgrave out of bounds and stopping him inches from the goal line. After the game my buddy and I waited outside of McKale Center to try and see if Lewis would sign my ticket stub. Everyone wanted a piece of our hero, but after a bit of waiting, Lewis signed my ticket and I still have it 25 years later. Later that season, Lewis helped his Thorpe candidacy when the Wildcats visited the UCLA Bruins in Pasadena. Late in the game, tied at 21, Lewis intercepted a pass and ran 70 yards for the game winning touchdown. Lewis ended the Pac-10 season with seven interceptions."
Lewis’s Wildcats jersey was retired in 2010 with Antoine Cason.
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