In the 1964 Cotton Bowl, he tallied 12 tackles, 2 unofficial sacks of quarterback Roger Staubach and stopped a scoring threat on fourth down with less than 10 minutes left on the game.
Head coach Tom Landry reached an agreement with the Pittsburgh Steelers to acquire Buddy Dial, who was one of the top receivers at the time in the league, in exchange for selecting Appleton with the team's first round draft choice and trading him immediately afterwards on January 1.
[5] The voice of the Steelers, Myron Cope, described the shenanigans both teams used in the attempt to sign Appleton as the "Buddy Dial for Nothing" trade and was one of his favorite stories.
[6] As a rookie in 1964, he was played at left defensive end, but could not earn a starting position, although he managed to record 2 interceptions.
[7] On January 12, 1967, he was traded along with linebacker Johnny Baker to the San Diego Chargers in exchange for cornerback Miller Farr.
On November 6, 1969, he was signed as a free agent by the Oakland Raiders to replace an injured Dan Birdwell, but would be later cut.
[9] After his career in football ended, he became a manager of a Dairy Queen in Westfield, Texas (20 miles north of Houston) and worked at fast food restaurants, still battling alcoholism and participating in various rehab programs.