Former STL grid star back in trenches for ‘Family Feud’
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- 17 Feb 2022
- JOE HOLLEMAN Joe Holleman • 314-340-8254 @stlsherpa on Twitter jholleman@post-dispatch.com
Howard Richards is a big man with a resume to match.
And next week, the former prep standout and Mizzou football All-American — who has followed that up with careers as a CIA agent, business executive and sportscaster — will add “television star” to the list.
Richards and his relatives will compete Feb. 24 on “Family Feud” (6 p.m. on KDNL, Channel 30).
“That’s all one of my cousins’ doing. She’s always had an obsession with that show,” Richards said with a chuckle. “And yeah, I reluctantly agreed to do it.”
For Richards, bright lights and big stages are nothing new.
Growing up in north St. Louis, Richards headed south in the early 1970s to attend the gifted program at Wade Elementary School.
He followed that program onto Southwest High, where he played baseball and basketball and dominated as an offensive lineman in football.
In 1977, Richards headed off to Mizzou and became a starter midway through his freshman year. He was a fixture on the O-line for the next three seasons.
Along the way, he garnered All-Big 8 and All-American honors and served as a team captain his senior year.
Then in 1981, the 6-foot-6, 270-pound lineman was a first-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys.
That created an uneasy situation, given that Dallas was the archrival of the St. Louis football Cardinals — the team Richards’ uncle, NFL Pro Bowler Ernie McMillan, starred on in the 1960s.
“Of course I hated the Cowboys,” he said. “But that all changed once they began paying me.”
A rash of injuries marred Richards’ pro progress, and the Cowboys released him in summer 1987. He played that next season for Seattle and then was out of football.
In 1988, Richards returned to Texas and continued his communications studies at North Texas State University — a pursuit that led him to work 13 years for the Central Intelligence Agency.
“The CIA had posted this full-page ad in the newspaper, saying they wanted people with communications backgrounds,” he said.
But once at the agency, Richards first worked as a security-clearance investigator, a job that led to two-year stints in both Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.
“Then I was on the executive protection team, which provides security for CIA directors and other high-level (agency) officials,” he said.
His CIA years were “an eye-opening experience, learning about how government intelligence operates at higher levels,” he said.
But of all his experiences, one sticks out — and not just because of its importance but also because of the intelligence and integrity shown by CIA director John M. Deutsch.
Richards was assigned to the detail protecting Deutsch when he met in 1996 with South African President Nelson Mandela.
After they arrived in the country, Deutsch personally called for Richards and told him he wanted Richards in the room with him and Mandela.
“I still remember there was a staircase at the back of (Mandela’s) office and I saw these two frail legs come down the steps — and then there was President Mandela, all cool, calm and smiling.”
“He came up to me, shook my hand with both of his hands and said, ‘My goodness, you must have played basketball.’ I told him that I had played but that my sport was American football,” Richards said.
Richards conceded that because he was the only African American on the detail, one might suspect his inclusion in the meeting might have been a case of tokenism.
“But after the meeting, Dr. Deutsch called me over and said he did it because ‘You’re the only one who can appreciate fully what Mr. Mandela did for the world,’” Richards said.
Richards said he was moved by Deutsch’s depth of understanding, given the fact that “he was pretty much just known as being super smart and very gruff.”
Richards left the agency in 2003 and sold real estate in the Washington area and worked for a private security firm. He returned to STL in 2010 and now works in business development for Centene Corp.
Since 2011, he has been part of the radio broadcasting team for Mizzou football.
But let’s not forget that persistent cousin, Lydia McGhee, who said she has been a “Family Feud” fan since she was a little girl, in the early Richard Dawson days.
“Yes, that’s me,” McGhee said with a big laugh.
“I applied a few years ago and never even heard anything back. So this time I got Howard involved because I knew they’d love that Dallas Cowboy connection,” she said. “Then when we got accepted, I had to round up some more relatives.”
The other players are Sydny Richards (Howard’s daughter) and two more cousins, Dr. Zorata Pierson and Stephen Darby.
A Ladue High and Central Missouri State University grad, McGhee has had her own brushes with greatness, namely from working as a White House intern for the George W. Bush administration.
“I worked in the West Wing and saw the president and the first lady all the time,” she said, describing “W” as a “really nice guy.”
So with McGhee riding herd, the “Johnson” family (named for grandparents) flew to Atlanta in July 2021 to film their appearance.
To find out how they did, tune in at 6 p.m. Feb. 24 on KDNL (Channel 30).
