Steve Cox (1958–)

Steve Cox was a University of Arkansas (UA) football All-American football player who went on to a successful career in the National Football League (NFL). He enjoyed similar success in banking and business after his football career came to an end.

Stephen Everett (Steve) Cox was born on May 11, 1958, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Sammie Joe Cox and Ruby Faye Smitherman Cox. The family moved to the western Arkansas town of Charleston (Franklin County) when Steve was young, and he graduated from Charleston High School in 1976.

Cox’s father had played football in school until he suffered a knee injury. But from Cox’s early years, his father encouraged his son’s involvement in the game—but with a twist. Cox recalled how his father told him that kicker would become a specialist position, and he helped his son develop his skills in that area. Indeed, before Cox ever played organized football, his neighbors became used to seeing his punts fly over the house, sometimes landing in their gardens. Cox tried out for the school team at the urging of the Charleston High School coach. With additional coaching and hard work, he developed into a good place kicker and punter.

Cox wanted to play for the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville (Washington County), but when the coaches told him they already had a veteran kicker, Cox ended up enrolling and making the team at the University of Tulsa. In the fall of 1976, Cox’s three field goals were central to Tulsa’s 9–3 upset victory over the twelfth-ranked Razorbacks. Following the 1977 season Cox transferred to UA, where, after sitting out the NCAA-mandated year as a transfer, he assumed the role of place kicker and punter for the Razorbacks in 1979. He excelled for two seasons as UA’s kicker and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1982.

In 1980, Cox married Virginia Rainwater, a fellow UA student he had met not long after his transfer from Tulsa. The couple had two children.

During his stint back in his home state, Cox led the nation in punting, earning All Southwest Conference honors in 1979 and 1980. In 1980, he was also named an All-American by the United Press International, Sporting News, Pro College & Football News Weekly, and Football News. Selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round of the 1981 NFL Draft, Cox went on to have an eight-year career in the NFL, spending four seasons with the Browns before being cut and picked up by the Washington Redskins in the summer of 1985. Cox earned a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl XXII, in which he punted four times and kicked off seven times for the Redskins in their 42–10 victory over the Denver Broncos.

Over the course of his NFL career, Cox punted eighty-nine times and averaged forty-two yards per kick. While he was primarily a punter, Cox was frequently called upon for kick-offs as well as for long field goal attempts. Through the course of his pro career, he attempted fifteen field goals, all over forty yards long, and he converted six of them, most notably on October 21, 1984, when, while still with the Browns, Cox became only the second man in NFL history to kick a field goal of at least sixty yards. Tom Dempsey sent Cox a note to congratulate him on joining the exclusive “60 Yard Club.”

The year prior to his sixty-yard kick, Cox had survived a major health scare. In the summer of 1983 as the transition between training camp and the exhibition season arrived, Cox experienced headaches and blurred vision. He went to one of the Browns team doctors, who arranged neurological testing at the Cleveland Clinic. Doctors discovered that Cox had hydrocephalus. Insertion of a brain shunt relieved a blockage between Cox’s brain and his spinal cord. The operation was a success, and while he did not punt that season, he did return to the team for the second half of the season, appearing in seven games where he kicked off and even attempted one long field goal.

Cox played the 1984 season with the Browns but was cut during the summer, replaced by Jeff Gossett, who had been the Browns’ punter while Cox was recovering from the surgery. Cox quickly signed with the Washington Redskins, launching a tenure that would culminate in a Super Bowl championship in January 1988. Cox retired in 1988 when the Redskins released him in November.

Following his retirement from the NFL, Cox initially worked in banking in Jonesboro (Craighead County), something he had begun doing during the NFL off-seasons. He started as a teller and worked his way up to loan officer. He subsequently became the chairman of three northeastern Arkansas banks controlled by his wife’s family. Cox also later joined Rainwater & Cox, where he began serving as a managing partner for the limited-liability company, one that owns and manages agricultural and commercial real estate and hospitality properties and investments. Earlier in his business career, Cox had farming interests, owning land around eastern Arkansas from Craighead County to Chicot County.

Cox served on the St. Bernards Hospital Board as well as being a member of the Jonesboro City Water & Light Board of Directors. He also served on the Soil Conservation Board. In 2018, Governor Asa Hutchinson appointed Cox to a ten-year term on the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas.

Cox was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor. He was also named to the Razorback All Century Team.

Cox and his wife live in Jonesboro.

For additional information:
Brennan, Christine. “Redskin Kicker Steve Cox Is Meeting Success Straight On.” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1986. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-05-sp-4464-story.html (accessed September 30, 2026).

Heard, Ken. “Stephen Everett Cox.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 8, 2026, pp. 1D, 5D. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2026/feb/08/high-profile-stephen-everett-cox/ (accessed September 30, 2026).

Molotsky, Irvin. “Fortune Favors Redskin.” New York Times, October 20, 1985. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/20/sports/fortune-favors-redskin.html (accessed September 30, 2026).

William H. Pruden III
Raleigh, North Carolina