Legends in the News :: Raiders History

I've taken it upon myself to combine the articles (to save space and organize a little) on former Raiders players into this one section. If there is a particular player or coach your looking for info on just use the search feature located on the left side of the page.

Thanks

Jim
The Birth of Fantasy Football

Born on a Raider road swing in 1962

Here's a link

http://www.fantasygas.com/article/chalktalk/ffootballlinked.html

The fantasy football phenomenon is linked to the terrible ’62 Raiders

By - Jeff Mertes

The hobby now referred to as fantasy football is linked to the Oakland Raiders while they were still members of the old AFL. It all began in The Manhattan Hotel (now Milford Plaza) on a rainy October evening when Bill Winkenbach, then 50 years old and a Raiders limited partner as well as successful businessman, Bill Tunnell, Oakland’s P.R. man, and Scotty Stirling who covered the Raiders for the Oakland Tribune got together for a few cocktails and began hammering out rules and league organization for what would become the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League) in 1963.

The stated purpose of the league was “To bring together some of Oakland’s finest Saturday morning gridiron forecasters to pit their respective brains (and cash) against each other. Inasmuch as this league is formed only with owners having a deep interest and affection for the Oakland Raiders Professional Football Team, it is felt that this tournament will automatically increase closer coverage of daily happenings in professional football.”

League rules stipulated that participants had to meet one of three prerequisites – 1) Affiliation with an AFL professional football team in an administrative capacity; 2) A direct relationship to professional football in a journalistic capacity; or 3) Either have purchased or have sold ten (10) season tickets for Oakland’s 1963 season. Although meeting one of the first two criteria would have put you in pretty exclusive company, the third category was probably even tougher to meet considering the ineptness of the Raiders since their inception in 1960 while compiling a 9-33 record. In 1962 Oakland had posted a puny 1-13 ledger. Selling ten tickets for the 1963 season wasn’t easy, and buying 10 may have been purely an act of masochism. Plus, an inexperienced offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers had been hired to guide the Raiders. Prior to regular season play in ’63, who would have imagined that the woeful Raiders would win ten of fourteen games to lay the foundation for the silver and black legend? Oh yeah, the new head coach was some guy named Al Davis.

Anyway, the GOPPPL was formed with eight franchises owned by Winkenbach, Tunnell, Stirling, George Ross (Oakland Tribune sports editor), Bob Blum (Raiders radio announcer), George Glace (Raiders ticket manager) as well as ticket sellers/purchasers Phil Carmona and Ralph Casebolt. Andy Mousalimas (owner of the Kings X Sports Bar) teamed-up with Stirling, and a young front office worker, Ron Wolf (indeed, the same guy who went on to become “whiz kid” general manager of the Green Bay Packers) was a partner of Ross’s.

The first ever fantasy football draft took place in Winkenbach’s basement in August of 1963. It was highly recommended that owners spend time thoroughly researching statistics and come prepared to the draft because, “Inasmuch as this test of skill and knowledge of the players in the AFL and NFL leagues will be backed by coin of the realm, it behooves each club owner to study carefully…all available statistics, schedules, weather conditions, player habits and other factors, so as to preserve one’s prestige and finances.” In 1963, most of the preparation amounted to buying a Street & Smith’s football annual.

The inaugural draft sheet (below) seems to indicate that the Ross-Mousalimas team drew the number one pick spot, and Glace picked eighth (last) in the first round.

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Sterling/Mousalimas Ross/Wolf Winkenbach Blum
OE Shofner, Del--NYG Collins,Gary--Cleve Randle, Sonny--St. Lou Powell, Art--Oak
Turner, Bake--NYJ Kocourek, Dave--S.D. Codgill, Gail--Det Graham-Art--Boston
Capalleti, Gino--Boston Walton, Joe--NYG Alworth, Lance--S.D. Retzlaff, Pete--Philly
Romeo, Tony--Boston Howton, Billy--Dallas Ferguson, Chas--Buff McGee, Max--G.B.

HB Hennigan, Chas--Hou Lincoln, Keith--S.D. Mason, Tommy--Minn Gifford, Frank--NYG
Clarke, Frank--Dallas Barr, Terry--Detroit Stone, Donnie--Den Moore, Tom--GB
Perkins, Don--KC Flatley, Paul--Minn Casey, Bernie--S.F. Mingo, Gene--Den
McElhenny, Hugh--NYG King, Phil--NYG Cannon, Billy--Houston Bull, Ronnie--Chi

QB Blanda, George--Hou Dawson, Len--KC Rote, Tobin--S.D.t Flores, Tom--Oak
Unitas, John, Balt Parilli, Babe--Boston Tarkenton, Fran--Minn Starr, Bart--G.B.

FB Johnson, John H.--Pitt Brown, Jim-Cleve Larry Garron--Boston Gilchrist, Cookie--Buff
Smolinski, Mark--NYJ Spikes, Jack--K.C. Mathis, Bill--NYJ Smith, J.D.--S.F.

K Mingo, Gene--Denver Martin, Jim--Baltimore Kramer, Jerry--G.B. Blanda, George--Hou
Brooker, Tommy--K.C. Mercer, Mike--Oakland Khayak, Bob--Wash Davis, Tom--S.F.

KR Cannon, Billy--Houston Suci, Bob--Houston Woodson, Abe--S.F. Gibson, Claude--Oak
Garron, Garren--Boston Glick, Gary--S.D. Mitchell, Chas--Denver Lowe, Paul--S.D.

DB Taylor, Rosie--S.F. Williamson, Fred--Oak Grayson, Dave--K.C. Morrow, Tommy--Oak
Glick, Gary----S.D. Banfield, Tony--Hou Gonsoulin,Austin--Den O'Hanley, Ross--Boston

DL Hussman, Ed--Houston Jelacic, Jon--Oak Faison, Earl--S.D. Costa, Dave--Oakland
Dee, Bob--Boston Branch, Mel--K.C. Petrick, Bob--S.D. Mays, Jerry--K.C.

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Carmona Casebolt/Downing Tunnell Glace
OE Dial, Buddy--Pitt Ditka, Mike--Chi Taylor, Lionel--Den Burford, Chris--K.C.
Miller, Bill--Buffalo Dewveal, Willie--Hou Phillips, Jim--L.A. Rams Dowler, Boyd, G.B.
Thomas, Aaron--NYG Arbanus, Fred--K.C. Groman, Billy--Den Warlick, Ernie--Buff
Kramer, Ron--G.B. Orr, Jimmie--Balt Norton, Don--S.D. Robinson, Jerry--S.D.

HB Mitchell, Bobby--Wash Conrad, Bobby Joe--St.Louis Daniels, Clem--Oak Brown, Tim--Philly
Haynes, Abner--K.C. Lowe, Paul--S.D. McDonald, Tom--Philly Colclaugh, Jim--Boston
Dubenion, Elbert--Buff Maynard, Don--NYJ Moore, Lenny--Balt Hoak, Dick--Pitt
Jackson, Frank--K.c. Lisbon, Don--S.F. Tobin, Bill--Houston Lewis, Dan--Detroit

QB Kemp, Jack--Buffulo Tittle, Y.A.--NYG Johnson, Chas--St. Louis Ryan, Frank--Cleve
Wade, Billy--Chicago Brown, Ed--Pitt McCormick, John--Den Wood, Dick--NYJ

FB Triplett, Bill--St. Louis Tolar, Charlie--Hou McClinton, Clint--K.C. Taylor,Jim--G.B.
Joe, Billy-- Buff Alan Miller---Oak Marconi, Joe--Chicago Webster, Alex--NYG

K Capalleti, Gino--Boston Groza, Lou--Cleve Chandler, Don--NYG Michaels, Lou--Balt
Spikes, Jack--K.C. Blair, George--S.D. Guesman Dick--NYJ Yoho, Mack--Buff

KR Adderly, Herb--G.B. Lincoln, Keith--S.D. Brown, Tim--Philly Jackson, Frank--K.C.
Roberson, Bo--Oak Christie, Dick--NYJ Jancik, Bob--Hou Frazier, Charlie--Hou

DB Wood, Willie--G.B. Woodson, Abe--S.F. Lynch, Dick--NYG Zeman, Bob--Denver
Suci, Bob--Hou Krakoski, Joe--Oak Harris, Dick--S.D. Gibson, Claude--Oak

DL Ladd, Ernie--S.D. Eisenhauer, Larry--Bost Sestak, Tom--Buff Allen, Dalva--Oak
McMurtry, Chuck--Oak Schmidt, Henry--S.D. Bell, Bobby--K.C. Antwine, Houston--Bos

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Oddly, George Blanda was drafted by two teams, as a quarterback for Ross-Mousalimas and as a place kicker for Blum. This was permitted because players could only be used at their designated positions.

Weekly lineups were submitted by noon Friday and included two ends, two halfbacks, a quarterback, a place kicker, a kick returner, a defensive back/linebacker and defensive lineman. Results were based only on actual scoring. Glace won the inaugural GOPPPL title and, as stated in the post-season banquet invitation, had to buy drinks for everyone in attendance (wives, included). A trophy was custom made featuring a carved face on a wooden football with a dunce cap that had to be prominently displayed by the last place finisher each year.

The league implemented performance scoring in the early 1970s, stimulated by Raider Pete Banazak’s specialty of finding paydirt from inside the five yard line without accumulating much yardage on the gridiron’s other 95 yards.

As to the GOPPPL’s competitive level, Stirling noted somewhat tongue in cheek, “Competition was fierce. Friendships were destroyed. There were some divorces. But guys used to try like hell to get in.”

Fantasy football’s popularity quickly spread mainly via leagues and competitions run by Mousalimas at The Kings X. It soon took hold across the bay in San Francisco, and ultimately throughout the nation.

Did that original group of Raiders fans have a clue as to what they had created? Did they ever fathom that fantasy football would captivate what is estimated to be as many as 20 million participants? Winkenbach, who continued to participate until his death at age 81 in 1993, was very surprised at its popularity even back then. Imagine the ‘wink’ he would have if he could see his brainchild today.

CATCHING UP WITH TOM KEATING
Ex-Raider lineman rubs elbows with politicians
Glenn Dickey, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, March 27, 2005

When Tom Keating, former star defensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders, married Karen Sprecher in 1997, he joined a family rich in international history and national politics.

As a result, Keating is leading a life he never envisioned for himself --

that of Washington insider.

Sprecher's dad, Dexter A. Sprecher, worked for the U.S. Department of Justice after a post-graduation trip in Europe in 1935, during which he witnessed the Berlin parade following the marriage of high-ranking Nazi Hermann Goering. He later became friends with William "Wild Bill" Donovan, so when Donovan formed the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency) during World War II, he recruited Sprecher for the organization.

After the war, Sprecher returned to the Department of Justice, but he was quickly brought over to Germany to be a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. His main work was the prosecution of individuals from the infamous IG Farben Corporation that manufactured the gas used for the Nazi death chambers at the concentration camps and chemicals used in experiments on prisoners.

When he returned to the United States, he worked for many years as the counsel for the National Democratic Committee, which came naturally for him.

"Karen's mom and dad were always involved in Democratic politics," Keating said in a telephone conversation from their home in Glover Park, Md., a suburb outside the Beltway. "Karen says she can remember sealing envelopes for campaign messages when she was just three or four."

Not surprisingly, Karen Sprecher became involved in politics as an adult, too. When Keating and Sprecher met, he was a private detective and she was an attorney for the Department of the Interior.

"That was a political appointment," Keating said, "so now that the other guy -- that's how we refer to (President Bush) -- is there, she's working as counsel for the Fish and Wild Life Foundation, which deals with environmental groups.

"It's a different life back here," he said. "When you go to parties, you're always meeting Senators, Congressmen. I met Bill Clinton three times.

"When the Reagan funeral was held, we got two tickets, and I gave one of them to my son, Alex (who's 14). I figured he'd get more out of it than me. He had met Clinton before, but he met the senior Bush and Jimmy Carter. It's an experience he'll never forget."

It's been pretty heady for Keating, too, whose only previous political experience was with an uncle who was an alderman in Chicago, where he grew up.

After graduating from Michigan, Keating was drafted by both the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL and the Buffalo Bills of the AFL. Bills owner Ralph Wilson personally signed Keating in 1964.

The Bills won two AFL titles when Keating was there. "We (players) still get together each year to celebrate those championships," he said. "Jack Kemp was there at the last one (1965)."

But it was with the Raiders that Keating reached his peak. He was the key to a Raider defensive line that set a then-record with 67 sacks in the 14-game 1967 season. His former teammate, Kemp, endured 11 of those sacks as the Raiders beat the Bills in Buffalo, 24-20.

Keating personified the Raiders of the 1960s, a colorful character off the field and a dedicated performer on it. He and Ben Davidson would take offseason motorcycle trips on the back roads of Mexico, and they remain friends. When Davidson's oldest daughter is married in San Diego in May, Tom and Karen Keating will be there.

Keating's house in Alameda was a busy place. If a player was having problems with his wife or girlfriend, he just moved in with Keating. If a player was traded from another team, he stayed with Keating until he found a more permanent home. It seemed there was always a party going, and even sportswriters were tolerated.

Keating invested his money in real estate in Kansas City, managed by his younger brother Bill, a former player and now an attorney. Tom Keating thought he would live off his investments, as Davidson has done. But the market plummeted, and in 1991 Keating found himself a single father who needed a job.

He went to work as a private detective, working out of the office of his friend, San Francisco attorney Jeff Walsh, until he got his license and formed his own company.

His work took him around the country. In 1997, while in Washington investigating a case involving Baltimore pension plan, he met Karen at a party. After a bicoastal romance of a year and a half, Keating moved to the D.C. area. They were married in the National Cathedral, where Karen was a board member.

It's not the post-football life Keating had planned, but it's a very good one.

Clancy Osborne

From the Palo Verde College Website

[1]A groundbreaking ceremony this Thursday marks the start of construction on the new Clancy Osborne Physical Education Center at the Palo Verde College main campus in Blythe. This begins the third phase of development on the campus.
The community is invited to attend the event which begins at 1 p.m. at the north side of the student parking lot. Light refreshments will be served.
The Palo Verde College District board of trustees voted to name the building in Osborne’s honor in appreciation for his contributions to the college. He was an instructor, coach and athletic director at PVC from 1969 to 1977, and he served as a trustee from 1983 to 1995. He and the late John O. Crain were two of the main movers in acquiring the property for the new campus in 1993.
Osborne moved from Lubbock, Tex., to Blythe at a young age and graduated from Palo Verde High School in 1953. He enrolled at Arizona State College (now ASU) that same year and ended up as first-string defensive end on the Sun Devils varsity team his freshman year. Knee surgery sidelined him the following year, so he returned as a sophomore in 1955 and played both offense and defense through his senior year.
During his senior year he was captain of the undefeated team (10-0), led the Border Conference in pass receptions, and was voted All Border Conference defensive end. He also received an All American honorable. He also played defensive end on the winning West team in the Shrine East West All-Star game that same year.

While attending ASU, Osborne met Mildred Ann Crawford, and the couple married in 1957. They have two children – daughter Debbie and son John.
Osborne was picked as a future draft choice by the Los Angeles Rams during his third year in college but continued on to graduate in 1958 with a bachelor of science degree in building and construction plus an additional 60 credit hours. Following graduation he tried out with the Rams but was released. He ended up signing with the 49ers and playing two years as the starting outside linebacker. “I was the second player from ASU to ever play professional football. The first was John Henry Johnson,” Osborne said.
The 1961 and 1962 seasons saw Osborne as the starting outside linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings, and then he moved on to the Oakland Raiders as starting outside linebacker for the 1963 and 1964 seasons and then coach for the linebackers and special teams.
Osborne left the pro football ranks in 1966 and completed his teaching degree at ASU. Between 1966 and 1969 he taught high school in Freemont, Calif., and taught and coached high school in Whittier, Calif., before coming to Palo Verde College.
By 1975 the athletic program began to fade, and Osborne cut back from full-time to part-time coaching and obtained a California real estate license. He became a full-time real estate broker and owner of Clancy Osborne Realty in Blythe. He purchased a Century 21 franchise in Blythe in 1984 and acquired a second in Beaumont, Calif., in 1987. He and his wife, Millie, have since sold the businesses to their son, John, and are enjoying retirement and traveling.

From Wikipedia

Eddie Erdelatz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Erdelatz

Eddie Erdelatz (April 21, 1913 – November 10, 1966) was a football player and coach who is best remembered for his nine years as head football coach of the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as holding the distinction of being the first head coach of the American Football League's Oakland Raiders.

Erdelatz's early life was not easy, losing his mother just two weeks after his birth, but he soon found that football would become a focal part of his life. Playing three years at end for St. Mary's College in California beginning in 1932 under the legendary Slip Madigan, Erdelatz showed himself to be a gritty competitor. In one case, a scraped leg that led to infection (and possible amputation) failed to keep him off the field, while his senior season was not stopped, despite a shoulder separation and twisted knee.

In 1936, Erdelatz became St. Mary's line coach under Madigan, leaving for a similar position with the University of San Francisco two years later. By 1940, he found himself back at St. Mary's for yet another two year stint that was followed by service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Having risen to the rank of lieutenant commander in 1945, Erdelatz began the first of three years as a Navy assistant coach at the academy in Annapolis, Maryland. During this time, he helped develop end Dick Duden into an All-American.

Looking to return to California, Erdelatz accepted the defensive coordinator's position with the San Francisco 49ers, then of the All America Football Conference, in 1948. Two years later, he returned to Navy to take over a football program that was in disarray, having won just four games over the previous five campaigns. The stress of rebuilding the program took its toll that first year wirth Erdelatz, who lost 50 pounds to drop to 195 on the scale.

However, he made a huge impact that season by leading a tremendous upset of arch-rival Army. The Black Knights had entered the game with an 8-0 record, having won 17 straight games and not having lost in 28 contests, while also having defeated Navy six straight times. Those marks were in sharp contrast to Navy's 2-6 record, but an outstanding defensive effort resulted in a 14-2 victory for the Midshipmen, causing Erdelatz to label his squad, "A Team Called Desire."

After two years at Navy, Erdelatz's record stood at 5-12-1, but he would never again have a losing seasons in his final seven seasons and would finish 5-3-1 in his games against Army. In 1954, the team finished 8-2, then shut out the University of Mississippi in the Sugar Bowl. Three years later, the Midshipmen competed in the Cotton Bowl, where they knocked off Rice University, 20-7. The latter win came one year after the first major conflict of Erdelatz's tenure, when his bid to play in a bowl game was rejected, despite having only one loss on the year.

After the bowl victory over Rice, Erdelatz was courted by other schools and nearly accepted the task of replacing Bear Bryant at Texas A & M University. After the 1958 season, he was also seen as a candidate for the 49ers' head coaching job, but instead, began spring practice the following year at Navy. On April 8, 1959, Erdelatz stunned college football by resigning as head coach of the Midshipmen, citing a number of factors, including the desire for an easier schedule. His superiors were reportedly annoyed with his job seeking and didn't attempt to talk him out of the decision.

After rejecting an assistant coaching position with the National Football League's Washington Redskins, Erdelatz sat out the 1959 season, waiting for the inevitable job offers and worked as a volunteer swim instructor for the handicapped. Indicating interest in the top job at Boston College, Erdelatz was also seen as a candidate for the New York Giants' position, as well as at the University of Southern California and the University of California-Berkeley. The latter position was given to Marv Levy, with questions about Erdelatz's departure from Navy given as the reason.

Having rejected the AFL's Los Angeles Chargers the year before, Erdelatz raised eyebrows when he accepted the head coaching position with the new league's Oakland Raiders on February 9, 1960. The team, which was originally scheduled to play in Minnesota, was the last squad to select players, and thus, got limited help from the talent available.

During his first season, the team struggled to a 6-8 record, due primarily to a weak defense, while off the field, Erdelatz battled an ulcer caused by numerous problems with the team's front office. When ownership conflicts kept the team from signing any top draft picks the next season, Erdelatz watched the Raiders outscored 99-0 in their first two games, resulting in his dismissal on September 18, 1961.

After the year had ended, Erdelatz applied for the head coaching job with Army and the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals (football), but came up empty. He then announced his retirement from football on May 9, 1962, saying he would be working as an executive with a California financial company.

On October 27, 1966, shortly after he had undergone a routine physical, Erdelatz had surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his stomach. Unfortunately, the cancer had metastisized and caused his death two weeks later. His funeral was attended by more than three hundred people.

Clem Daniels From the Oakland Tribune

CLEM DANIELS is sitting on a bench, enjoying the festivities of the Raider Nation Celebration, talking about the old days of the American Football League.
When asked if contemporary African-American players know of the sacrifices made by their predecessors, Daniels' mood sours for a moment as he offers a dismissive wave of his hand.

"No, they don't," Daniels said. "Absolutely no idea. None whatsoever. Most young players today are out of touch with the AFL history, and they have been for a long time."

Daniels, 69, joined the Raiders in 1961 after playing a season as a defensive back for the Dallas Texans, a franchise which later became the Kansas City Chiefs.

Many African-American athletes found the AFL more willing to provide an opportunity than the established NFL. The Raiders' Al Davis, the Chiefs' Hank Stram and the Chargers' Sid Gillman were among those in the forefront of those actively seeking black talent.

Former Raiders cornerback Howie Williams, who played two seasons in Green Bay (1961-62), said he lived in a renovated barn with five other blacks his first year in Green Bay. He said the racism practiced in the NFL wasn't always overt.

"It was like benign negligence," Williams said. "They just ignored it. It was like, 'As long as guys make out OK, it's fine.'"

Williams remembers getting off a bus in Florida for a preseason game and walking with some of his white teammates toward the team hotel only to be pulled aside."Vince Lombardi called over (defensive end) Willie Davis and told him to talk to me," Williams said. "Willie said we were going to a hotel on the other side of town."

Art Powell, a receiver Davis recently called the "T.O. of his time," was released by the Philadelphia Eagles because he refused to play in a preseason game in Norfolk, Va., where black players stayed in a separate hotel from white players.

When the same thing happened with the AFL New York Titans in Greenville, S.C., Powell again refused to play, although this time he kept his job.

"You used to have guys tell you, 'Look, kid, you've got a lot of athletic ability. Just keep your mouth shut and don't worry about it," Powell said. "I wasn't the lone ranger. There were other guys who stood up."

Daniels was one of those players.

"We had to take stands to break down a lot of the bigotry and things that were going on," Daniels said. "There were still some very segregated cities, and we were confronted with a lot of situations. And that's the best thing I can say about Al Davis — he backed us."

Davis moved a Raiders preseason game from Mobile, Ala., to Frank Youell Field in Oakland because of the concerns of his African-American players, which included Daniels, Powell, Bo Roberson and Fred Williamson.

He did it despite losing gate receipts for attendance that would have been considerably more than the 8,317 that came to the rescheduled game in Oakland.

In Mobile, the stands were segregated and blacks were not allowed to use the bathroom, Powell said.

Daniels said the black players met and told sportswriters they wouldn't play. He also said he told Davis.

"He said, 'I'll call (AFL Commissioner) Joe Foss and get it changed,'" Daniels said. "Just like that."

Davis, Powell and Daniels were also involved in having the 1965 AFL All-Star Game moved from New Orleans to Houston when 23 black players left town in protest over the way they were treated.

"When we got to New Orleans, I get my luggage, run into the street, hail down a cab, and the driver says, 'I can't take you,'" Powell said. "I said, 'What do you mean, you can't take me?' He says he can only have white customers and that I had to find myself a colored cab. There weren't a hell of a lot of colored cabs at the airport in those days."

"Colored cabs," according to Raiders assistant coach and Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown, came with restrictions in terms of where they could and couldn't go.

"They wouldn't go in certain areas," said Brown, who made the All-Star team playing for Denver in 1965. "They'd drop you off."

Black players met at their hotel and signed a legal pad produced by Powell in which they decided not to play.

In the book "America's Game, the Epic Story of how Pro Football Captured a Nation," author Michael MacCambridge writes that city officials produced Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, an African American who would later be the city's first black mayor.

Morial, the first African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State, told players they were overreacting and defended the New Orleans record on civil rights.

Powell remembers feeling insulted.

"He blamed it all on Dr. (Martin Luther) King, that he was a troublemaker for trying to do change," Powell said. "I told the guy, 'You just blew it. Those were the worst possible combination of words you could have said.'"

Powell said he then got a call from Davis, who said he would see what he could do. Players left New Orleans, and by the time most of them had gotten back home, the game was moved to Houston.

Davis, in an Aug. 1 press conference, talked about how the 1960s affected the Raiders and professional sports.

"In'65, we had cultural revolution in this country," Davis said. "We had the Watts riots, we had Detroit, we had Martin Luther King in'68 getting killed. It's tough to go back in retrospect and remember, but there was a little turmoil in every organization, in every league, over the diversity issue and what was going to happen about it in the country."

Davis helped build the Raiders into a power by aggressively seeking talent from small, predominantly black colleges.

"He'd have someone go to Grambling, Southern, Jackson State, Alcorn State, all the black schools," Brown said.

Art Shell, whom Davis made the NFL's first African-American coach in 1989, is fond of recounting the Raiders draft class of 1968, in which he was taken in the third round.

That year Davis also selected quarterback Eldridge Dickey of Tennessee A&I in the first round, George Atkinson of Morris Brown in the seventh round and tight end John Eason of Florida A&M in the ninth round.

"He has always felt, and he tells me to to this day, that there are players in those schools," Shell said. "They're out there. You've just got to find them."

Powell said he always appreciated the fact that Davis stuck by him when he requested a trade to Buffalo in 1966 so he could pursue a business opportunity in Toronto.

Labeled as a locker room lawyer and a divisive force by some of football's establishment, Davis' parting words have stuck with Powell 40 years later.

"He told me, 'Don't let people try and get it in your head that you should change. There's nothing wrong with you,'" Powell said. "He could have just said adios."

By the time Shell arrived in 1968, players such as Powell and Daniels had helped pioneer a more tolerant era.

"There were a lot of people that took a stand, and I'm very appreciative of it," Shell said. "I would hope that if players today would go back and look at their history, how things occurred, they would appreciate it too."

Brown said he doubts there is a single player on the Raiders roster who knows any details of the struggles of African-American players in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

"That's the thing that's changing about our society," Shell said.

"They don't know their history. Players don't know the history of this league or the history of the team they're playing for. I think that's regrettable because they're missing out on a lot."

Note: This is the second and final installment of Jerry McDonald's series on African-American Raiders players of the AFL. I think there's an important message here. Not only for the fans but for the players themselves. Thanks again Jerry!

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_4392683

Art Powell

"I wish I could take you all back to 1963. I had one of the greatest players who has ever played this game and he was tough to handle. He was the T.O. of his time. And he was great. His first year for me he carried us. He caught 16 touchdowns. His name was Art Powell."
-- Raiders owner Al Davis on Aug. 1, 2006
The man Al Davis called "The T.O. of his time" got dumped by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Art Powell, like Terrell Owens, was a headstrong, independent free-thinker who discarded conventional wisdom as easily as he scored breathtaking touchdowns.

Pro football management, with one exception, wanted no part of him. Opponents and even some teammates felt the same way.

Powell would not conform to societal norms, challenging the last vestiges of the Jim Crow South when many other African-American athletes were keeping quiet.

The comparison to "T.O." by his former boss at a press conference elicits a chuckle from Powell. He is 69 years old and living in Aliso Viejo, not far from where he grew up in San Diego.

Powell can see the similarities between him and Owens. They were both basketball players who became extraordinarily gifted receivers. They were controversial, although as Powell points out, in very different ways.

Owens is a multi-million dollar talent in a billion-dollar industry. Powell played when racial quotas were commonplace and black players in Southern locales were housed separately from their white teammates.

"The challenges that were before me were social challenges," Powell said. "I chose to challenge'em while others chose not to challenge 'em. ... I made a lot of people angry."

Powell, having already posted big numbers with the New York Titans from 1960 through 1962, was brought by Davis to Oakland in 1963. In four seasons, he caught 254 passes for 4,491 yards and scored 50 touchdowns in 56 games.

At 6-foot-3, 211 pounds, Powell had great hands, the graceful stride of a sprinter and the size and strength to dominate defensive backs unencumbered by the limited-contact rules that currently exist in the NFL.

He played just one season at San JoseState in 1956 before leaving to play in Canada — leading the nation in receiving — and is regarded by some to be the best all-around athlete to attend the school.

Yet Powell's name draws blank stares not only from the most die-hard football fans, but also from current NFL players who don't know of the sacrifices he and others of his era made.

"I've heard about African-American kids playing baseball who don't know who Jackie Robinson is," Powell said. "If that's the case, no one is going to know who Art Powell is."

Powell grew up in San Diego and said he visited the library often as a youth, reading with particular interest about Robinson and Paul Robeson, an actor, athlete and singer who was in the forefront of the civil rights movement from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Still, Powell said it was never his intention to challenge the system.

"All I wanted to do was be a football player. Period," Powell said. "All this other stuff was dumped in my lap."

Those who know and played with Powell relate to the physical comparison with Owens, but reject the notion of the two being anything alike other than as receivers.

When Powell scored touchdowns, there was no dancing, no Sharpies, no raising his hands to the heavens on the Dallas star.

"The things Owens does are all self-serving, in my opinion, and I don't even know the guy," said Tom Flores, who played with Powell in both Oakland and Buffalo. "The things that Art did were because of beliefs that he had."

Howie Williams, a Raiders cornerback from 1964-69, believes Powell's experience living in Canada while playing in the Canadian Football League in 1958-59 helped shape his perspective.

"You're supposed to be free — he wanted to be free," Williams said. "He lived in Canada, so he'd been exposed to a different society. He didn't expect everyone to like him, but he was going to force Americans to be Americans."

Bill Walsh, the Raiders receivers coach in 1966, has known Powell since his days at San Jose State and has long admired his willingness to act on principle.

"Art was his own man and fiercely independent," Walsh said. "He was not afraid to voice his opinions and to take a stand."

Taking a stand

Owens' relationship with the Eagles was fractured over money. Powell was let go following his rookie season because he was the only one of a dozen African-American players who refused to play in a preseason game in Norfolk, Va.

"We were told colored ballplayers — that was the language in those days — would not be allowed to stay with the rest of the team in the hotel," Powell said. "I chose not to play. The other African-American ballplayers said they weren't going to play either. But they did play. ... It cost me my job."

The Eagles, Powell said, told him to go home and think about it. Meanwhile, the American Football League was formed, and Powell signed with the New York Titans.

In his first season, Powell caught 67 passes for 1,167 yards and 14 touchdowns, but wasn't prepared for what was to come the following season while on a trip to Greenville, S.C., for a preseason game.

"I had never been to a place with colored and white drinking fountains," Powell said.

When the Titans arrived, Powell said general manager Steve Sebo informed the approximately 15 black players they would not accompany the white players to the team hotel. While the white players boarded a bus and left, black players were taken to the outskirts of town.

"They had these old things called jitneys, little bitty trucks with small seats," Powell said. "When we drove in, it was like something you'd see in an old movie. You go through a dirt road, past a bunch of trees, to this place they called a 'colored only' resort.

"The swimming pool was like a swamp. There were no screens on the windows. There were mosquitoes and bugs as big as your fist. Of course the air conditioning doesn't work. So it's a hundred degrees out, and you're just laying on your bed sweating like crazy."

When the Titans played the Houston Oilers on Aug. 25, 1961, Powell again chose not to play.

"I told (GM) Steve Sebo I didn't think it was fair," Powell said. "You preach all year about team play, then you know darn well we're not going there as a team."

After the experience in Philadelphia, Powell did not attempt to get his African-American teammates to join him. He suited up and sat by himself on the bench, letting the hate wash over him like a summer thunderstorm.

"I heard things I had never heard before and haven't heard since, and I can recall every word," Powell said. "People in those days were getting killed, and I was sitting there in the wide open. You just don't know what's going to happen next, I just wanted to get out alive."

His actions, Powell said, angered not only his white teammates, but also black ones.

"They thought you were putting them out in front of a situation they didn't want to deal with," Powell said. "So I pretty much kept to myself. I didn't look for someone to side with me. You just made choices, and in my gut, I thought I made the right choice."

Al Davis came calling

Powell decided he wanted to leave the Titans, and financially strapped owner Harry Wismer allowed the receiver to sign with any team in 1963.

He said he began getting phone calls from George Ross, sports editor of the Oakland Tribune, and Scotty Stirling, a Tribune sports writer. They told Powell Al Davis was trying to reach him.

Powell said he thought Davis was still working on the staff of Sid Gillman with the San Diego Chargers. He was informed Davis had a new job — as head coach and general manager of the Oakland Raiders.

The Raiders were coming off consecutive seasons of 2-12 and 1-13. Powell, living in Toronto at the time, said he wasn't interested.

Davis called anyway.

"He told me he'd bought a plane ticket and for me to pick him up at the airport," Powell said. "My wife and I took Al to dinner. We went back to our apartment, and he told me how he was going to give me a chance to stretch out and show what kind of receiver I could really be. Being the salesman that he is, when he left, he had a signed contract with my name on it."

Playing before crowds averaging 17,435 at Frank Youell Field, on the grounds of what is now Laney College, Powell caught 73 passes for 1,304 yards and 16 touchdowns as the Raiders went from 1-13 to 10-4.

The following season, Powell saw a potential problem when he looked at the pre-season schedule. The Raiders were to play the New York Jets at Ladd Stadium in Mobile, Ala., on Aug. 23, 1963.

"We got information that we weren't going to stay together as a team," Powell said. "They were going to rope off a section for the colored fans to sit in, and the colored fans wouldn't be able to use the bathroom,"

Powell said he regarded it as, "my first big challenge with Al Davis, but it turned out it wasn't a challenge at all."

Davis, after consulting with Powell, Bo Roberson, Clem Daniels and Fred Williamson, switched the game to Youell Field.

"Al never put another game in the South during the time I was with the Raiders," Powell said.

The league, however, was another matter, scheduling the AFL All-Star game in New Orleans following the 1964 season. Powell was one of 23 African-American players who decided not to play because of the treatment of blacks at the Roosevelt Hotel and on Bourbon Street.

Sign of the times

African-American players couldn't ride in cabs, were denied entrance to restaurants and verbally abused at the hotel, Powell said. San Diego Chargers Ernie Ladd and Earl Faison said they were ordered to leave a nightclub at gunpoint by a bouncer. Powell said the players met at 2 a.m. to share their experiences.

They decided to leave town.

Powell, mindful of his experience in Philadelphia, produced a legal pad and asked them to sign their names.

Davis got involved, Powell said, and by the time he landed in New York en route to Toronto, the game had been moved to Houston.

In 1966, his fourth season with the Raiders, the club moved into the more spacious Coliseum. Powell was finally getting to play before some big crowds.

Yet Powell had a business opportunity in Toronto and told Davis he wanted to move on. He said Davis tried to talk him out of it. Eventually, he was traded to Buffalo along with Flores in exchange for Daryle Lamonica.

It was a great deal for Oakland. Lamonica was the perfect quarterback for the Raiders' vertical game, throwing 34 touchdown passes as the Raiders went 13-1 and won the AFL championship.

Buffalo, on the other hand, was a defense and run-oriented team with an antiquated offense.

"When we got there, we looked at our playbook and said, 'Geez. Is that all there is?,'" Flores said.

Powell sustained a knee injury that required surgery early in his first season with the Bills and was never the same. When coach Joe Collier insisted Powell practice every day after his recovery in order to play, Powell resisted.

"I had been a durable player for 10 years. But now it would take me all week just to be ready to play," Powell said. "I figured it was time to do something else."

He played for the Minnesota Vikings in 1968, a fringe player just as the league was exploding. The New York Jets and Joe Namath won Super Bowl III that year, beating the Baltimore Colts, but Powell was done as a player before the public could become aware of who he was or what he accomplished.

"It's a shame he never got to play after the leagues merged their schedules (in 1970) so people could really see what he could do," Walsh said.

A regrettable move

Powell lives quietly with Betty, his wife of 49 years, in a home which he said has no memorabilia or hint of his days as a professional athlete. He has two grown daughters and six grandchildren.

He is recovering from knee replacement surgery and looking forward to getting back on the golf course.

Even now, Powell wonders how his career would have been different had he stayed in Oakland.

"Not every decision you make goes well," Powell said. "I regret it more than Mr. Davis does. There is no doubt playing for the Raiders would have been the best way to finish my career. No doubt.

"You make a decision, you live with it."

Note: Special thanks to Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune who did one hell of a good job with this story. You can find it online here.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_4389830

Senator George Fleming

A real stately run
GEORGE FLEMING, BOOKER T.
WASHINGTON HIGH
First it was football, now politics for Dallas native

George Fleming might be one of Dallas' best-kept secrets. The people of Seattle, however, know him well.

Fleming, a Dallas native, has been prominent in Washington state for more than 40 years. He's been everything from a stellar running back at the University of Washington to a state senator instrumental in the creation of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

"I think serving the people at the senatorial level has to be one of the most important things that's ever happened to me," said Fleming, a 1957 graduate of Dallas' Booker T. Washington High School.

"But I think I would be remiss if I didn't look at what I was able to accomplish in football."

Fleming, 67, rarely brags about his football achievements, which include playing for two Rose Bowl champions, playing with the Oakland Raiders and starring in the Canadian Football League. He was co-Most Valuable Player of the 1960 Rose Bowl, leading Washington to a 44-8 victory against Wisconsin.

The Oakland Raiders of the American Football League drafted Fleming in 1961. Fleming played one year with Oakland, then played with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League from 1963 to 1965. His 135 points in 1963 led the league and are the second most by a rookie in Winnipeg history.

Fleming said playing in the Rose Bowl was a childhood dream. He aspired to play at a school like UCLA, USC or Ohio State, teams that were Rose Bowl regulars.

"There were those who wanted me to play for a black college, but they didn't play in the Rose Bowl back then," Fleming said.

Fleming said UCLA was interested, but he "goofed off" his senior year of high school and didn't have the required grade-point average. Fleming said UCLA wanted out-of-state students to have a 3.5 GPA. He had a 3.3.

Fleming attended nearby East Los Angeles College and played football as a freshman. He didn't let the battle of integration vs. segregation interfere with his plans.

He said his brief time away from Dallas - he attended school in Los Angeles in the seventh grade - helped prepare him for college.

"When I got out of high school and went to East Los Angeles Junior College, the community was heavily Hispanic," Fleming said. "For me, ... [integration] wasn't as bad as people may think."

At East Los Angeles, Fleming had to deal with injuries midway through the football season. He said UCLA seemed to lose interest.

"They thought I wouldn't be durable enough," Fleming said. "It was then when my coach asked me about going to see Washington. The first thing I thought was, 'Wait, I can't get to the Rose Bowl there.'"

But he did. Twice. And Fleming became one of Washington's all-time greatest utility players. He was a halfback, kicker, punt returner and kick returner and recently was named by Washington as one of the school's top 100 alumni.

Fleming now is a government relations liaison for the King Street Center in Seattle. He served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1969 to '71 and spent 20 years in the state Senate. He's also been active with the Washington State Housing Finance Commission since 1983.

One of Fleming's governmental highlights is teaming with advocates to introduce legislation for a holiday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. The bill was introduced in 1968. Congress didn't pass the legislation until 1983.

"For 15 years, I helped fight to get the holiday," he said. "To think back of what we went through, that's a great accomplishment."

Fleming said his life as a government official has been just as exciting as his life as a football player. "My childhood dream came true with the Rose Bowl, and I was the first African-American senator" in Washington state, he said. "That in itself is an accomplishment."

E-mail dsayles@dallasnews.com

FAMOUS HUSKIES

George Fleming was inducted into the University of Washington Hall of Fame in 1980. Here is a list of other well-known Washington alumni who also have been inducted.

Year

Name Sport inducted

Don Coryell Football 2000

College, pro football Hall of Fame coach

Steve Emtman Football 1999

No. 1 pick overall in the 1992 NFL draft

Warren Moon Football 1984

70,000-plus passing yards in NFL, CFL

Jack Nichols Basketball 1980

10 seasons in NBA; played with Celtics

Detlef Schrempf Basketball 1995

Ex-Maverick amassed 15,761 points

Brian Sternberg Track/field 1983

Former world-record holder in pole vault

Arnie Weinmeister Football 1982

1984 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee

Sammy White Baseball 1984

Played 11 seasons with the Red Sox

GEORGE FLEMING

Born: June 29, 1938, in Dallas

Personal: Wife Tina; daughters Sonja and Yemi; grandchildren Arica, Michah and Christopher

High school: Booker T. Washington (1953-57); four-year varsity letterwinner in football; all-state quarterback his junior year and all-state running back his senior year; state competitor in the 110 hurdles in track and field; played varsity basketball as a senior.

College: East Los Angeles College (1957-58) and Washington (1958-61); won two Rose Bowl championships in 1960 and 1961; named co-MVP of the 1960 Rose Bowl.

Professional: AFL's Oakland (1961), CFL's Winnipeg (1963-65); caught 10 passes for 49 yards, returned 29 kicks for 588 yards and made 24 of 25 extra-point tries with the Raiders; held the record for longest field goal in Raiders history (54 yards) before Sebastian Janikowski broke it with a 55-yarder in 2003.

Notable: At 5-11, 190 pounds, he was considered a big back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ... He was inducted into the Husky Legends in 1998. ... Fleming left Washington to play with the Raiders in 1961 but returned to school to graduate in 1964. ... Fleming was majority caucus chairman while serving in the Washington state Senate.

Trailblazer and Original Raider Eddie Macon

By Lori Gilbert
Record Sports Columnist
February 02, 2007 6:00 AM
When the Chicago Bears checked into the team hotel in Miami this week, coach Lovie Smith wasn't told he would have to stay on the first floor, or worse, in some other establishment.

Smith hasn't spent the week eating by himself in his room or in a dining room, out of view of the rest of the world.

Life for the Bears' first African-American coach is a little better than it was for the team's first African-American player.

Of course, times have changed significantly since 1952, when Stockton's Eddie Macon broke the color barrier in Chicago by being drafted in the second round by owner-coach George Halas.

Just as he had been at Pacific, Macon, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound halfback, was the first, and only, African-American on the team.

"I was very surprised to learn the other day that 70 percent of football players today are African-American," said Macon, 80. "That stunned me. I watched the Bears game and I saw more black faces than white faces. I thought, 'Look at that. I did something right, didn't I?' "

Macon's tenure with the Bears lasted only two seasons before he left for the Canadian Football League, but that brief time in Chicago paved the way for the Lovie Smiths and Tony Dungys.

Being the first to do anything never is easy, and for California-reared Macon to transplant himself to the Windy City was daring.

"I got off the plane that morning and got to the hotel and read the big paper," Macon said. "There were five or six killings the day before. It was the murder capital of the world."

It wasn't just the streets that were mean.

Nasty messages to Macon were scrawled on the wall of the bathroom by teammates at training camp. Halas himself had warned him it would not be easy. He told his draft pick he'd have to behave like Jackie Robinson, who had broken baseball's color barrier in 1947.

"I knew my place, knew how far I could go. That was it," Macon said. "I knew what was out of bounds. I knew the boundary lines. That's the first thing you learn."

Finding his place in white society came instinctively for a man who had grown up a sports star in Stockton, served in the Army during World War II, then returned to athletic glory at Pacific.

With his sprinter's speed combined with strength and guile, his place on a football field was easy to find. He helped the Tigers earn a spot in the Sun Bowl following the 1951 season, and a few weeks later, Halas drafted him second, behind Miami back Jim Dooley.

"I was very surprised to be the No. 2 draft choice," Macon said. "Truthfully, I did not think I'd be drafted by anybody. There were very few black ballplayers in the nation at that time."

All 12 teams had African-American players, Macon said, but he considered them part of a quota.

But Halas called him and said, "He wanted me to come on board with him."

Macon recalled the Bears training camp at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Ind., as stressful.

"I was having a hard time adjusting. I thought, 'What am I doing beating my head against the wall? I'm not going to make the team,' " Macon said. "Then George Connor came up to me and said, 'You're on the team.' He was an All-American (tackle) out of Notre Dame. He was the only player on the team who called George Halas by his first name.

"That meant a lot to me. When he told me that, all the weight came off. It was like I was carrying a big anchor on my shoulders. I relaxed."

Off the field, things stayed the same.

"I had to be careful what I said or did," Macon said. "I had to be very careful. I walked on thin ice.

"If something came up and I didn't' like it, I'd turn my back and walk away. In that particular day, if you were black, you were black, no matter who you were."

And Macon didn't advertise who he was to those he came in contact with.

Few had television sets in 1952, so most listened to his exploits on the radio. He was rarely recognized on the street, which the quiet, humble Macon preferred.

When the team traveled, he stayed in a separate hotel or on the first floor of the team hotel. He often had to order room service.

"They were all the same," he said of the different NFL cities, that included San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas and Green Bay.

Still, Macon looks back on his time with the Bears fondly.

"I don't have any bad memories," he said, ever true to his resolve to accept what happened, forgive and look ahead.

He is a saddened, however, that the Bears never have invited him to any team reunions. He said he'd even pay his own way to be there.

The time for such a gathering certainly is now.

When the Bears return from the Super Bowl, win or lose, Lovie Smith needs to meet Eddie Macon.

Said Macon: "We have something in common."

CATCHING UP WITH: Eddie Macon
The 'Jackie Robinson' of the Bears
Ex-Pacific star a target of abuse

George Halas, legendary owner and coach of the Chicago Bears, did not exactly mince words. Soon after Halas selected Eddie Macon, a fleet running back/defensive back from the College of the Pacific, in the second round of the 1952 NFL draft, he told Macon, "I want you to be my Jackie Robinson."

Five years earlier, Robinson had shattered baseball's color barrier with a famous mix of courage and self-restraint. On a smaller scale, Macon would follow a similar path as the Bears' first African American player.

"Halas was sending me a message by saying that," Macon said. "He knew there was going to be a lot of bigotry. ... There were going to be a lot of things I'd have to endure, and I couldn't lash back."

Today, as the 49ers visit Chicago to play the Bears, it's worth remembering Macon's historic link to one of the NFL's most storied franchises. Macon, 78, lives in Daly City, still works as a ship clerk and is struggling to cope with the death of his only son earlier this year.

He was a pioneer throughout his long-ago football career, as the first African American player at Pacific and the first to play in the Sun Bowl. Along the way, he encountered many of the same racial obstacles as Robinson and other black athletes of that era.

Macon was mostly accepted at Pacific, but he also recalled the team's trip to Baton Rouge for a big-payday game against mighty LSU in 1951. Macon, originally told he could play, arrived in Louisiana and learned otherwise; the Deep South was not ready to watch an African American play football.

Pacific's coaches whisked Macon out of the team hotel and took him to a black church. He ended up spending the night at the home of a black funeral director.

The next day, Pacific's traveling party went sightseeing in New Orleans. Three restaurants refused to seat the group, given Macon's presence. Finally, one establishment allowed the visitors to eat in a banquet room, as long as Macon used a back entrance and took the freight elevator.

"You never get used to that," he says now. "It's demeaning."

His three years at Pacific also included plenty of pleasant memories -- helping the Tigers to an unbeaten season in 1949, returning a punt 100 yards for a touchdown in 1950 and playing alongside quarterback Eddie LeBaron. Macon averaged 18.9 yards per punt return in college, among the best marks in NCAA history and slightly better than a UCLA player named Jackie Robinson.

Macon's two seasons with the Bears produced another memorable punt return -- a 63-yarder against the Redskins on which Macon dashed back and forth across the field -- but also some racial incidents. The NFL had some African Americans in the 1920s but banned them from 1933 through 1945, then reintegrated in '46 under pressure from the rival All-America Football Conference. UCLA's Kenny Washington was the first black player to sign in the post-World War II era, with the Rams.

Six years later, as the first African American on one of the league's most prominent teams, Macon was a magnet for abuse. Detroit Lions players were especially nasty, twisting his leg under the pile and taunting him with racial slurs.

Macon faced similar indignities off the field. When the Bears landed at Midway Airport, Macon's teammates went one way and he headed the other. He lived at a local YMCA, where he could not use the swimming pool.

"I couldn't change the system, so I accepted it," Macon said.

He also bucked the system in 1954, fleeing Chicago to play in Canada, where his college coach, Larry Siemering, had moved. Macon later tried to return to the NFL, but no team would sign him. Macon said Halas used his considerable influence to "blacklist" him for bolting from the Bears.

Macon ultimately signed with the Raiders in 1960. He played one season in the upstart American Football League, commuting to practices from his home in Stockton, before retiring.

"I have some regrets because my livelihood was taken away from me," Macon said of leaving Chicago in '54. "But I'll remember blazing the trail, being the first black player on the Bears. Nobody can take that away from me."

Even now, as he nurses the aches and pains of aging, Macon's voice booms with energy. His upbeat nature dims only when talking about his namesake: Edwin Macon Jr., the youngest of five children, died July 1 while in a San Francisco jail on a domestic violence charge. He was 44.

Macon's wife of 60 years, Jessie, is bitter about Eddie Jr.'s death, because he repeatedly asked to go to a hospital -- and instead was sent to an isolation cell -- in the hours before he died. An autopsy concluded Macon Jr. died of a cocaine overdose; it also found he had an enlarged heart, a kidney infection and mild pneumonia, officials told The Chronicle in August.

Jessie Macon remains openly angry about her son's treatment, but her husband strikes a tone of sadness. Eddie Macon keeps a photo of his son on his dresser in Daly City. He sees it every morning when he wakes up.

"I'm trying to get closure," Macon said, "but it's kind of hard to do that."