He guided the Knights to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Class AAA (the top classification at the time) state championship in 1968.
Ferguson played college football at the University of Arkansas, where he held the school's single game record for most completions until broken in 2012 (31 against Texas A&M in 1971).
At one time he shared, with Ron Jaworski, the NFL record for consecutive starts by a quarterback with 107, until he was replaced by Joe Dufek on September 30, 1984.
His three losses came from the Cincinnati Bengals in those same 1981 playoffs, the San Diego Chargers the year before in 1980 (a game in which he played the entire contest with a sprained ankle), and in 1974 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In 1995, Ferguson briefly came out of retirement to serve as a backup quarterback for the San Antonio Texans of the Canadian Football League's South Division.