Born on July 3, 1944, in Windsor, North Carolina,[3] Pugh graduated from its W. S. Etheridge High School[4] and enrolled at nearby Elizabeth City State College at the age of 16.
[9] Pugh was selected in the eleventh round (145th overall) of the 1965 NFL draft, by the Dallas Cowboys,[10] and was also offered a contract to play with the Oakland Raiders of the AFL.
[3] His 14 seasons, matched by five others, represent the sixth-longest career in Cowboys history; only Jason Witten, L. P. Ladouceur, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Bill Bates, and Mark Tuinei played more years.
[13] In the final seconds of the 1967 NFL Championship Game, the famous Ice Bowl at Green Bay, Pugh was blocked by Packers' guard Jerry Kramer for the game-deciding touchdown.
Kramer's block cleared the way for Bart Starr to score on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 16 seconds remaining, lifting Vince Lombardi's team to a 21–17 victory and an unprecedented third consecutive title game win in −15 °F (−26 °C) weather at Lambeau Field.
Always a team player, Pugh carried on through the 1971 season with a case of appendicitis and delayed his surgery until the offseason, by taking shots of penicillin.
[23] Pugh showed financial acumen from an early age, when he had the Cowboys defer part of his compensation, which was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time he retired.