"Cookie" Gilchrist
"Cookie" Gilchrist was born on this date in 1935. He was a Black professional football player.
Born in Brackenridge, PA, Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist was a star player in high school. He signed a pro football contract with the Cleveland Browns just after graduation. Soon, he left training camp in Hiram, Ohio, and went to Canada to play. He was team MVP for the Sarnia Imperials and the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen of the Ontario Rugby Football Union.
He joined the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats, where in 1957, the team won the Grey Cup, and he played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Argonauts. Gilchrist was a fullback, linebacker, and place-kicker, gaining over 4,800 yards (4389 m) rushing in the Canadian Football League.
In 1962, he was traded to the Buffalo Bills of the (then) fledgling American Football League. Gilchrist played fullback and kicked there, though he insisted he could have played both ways. He was the first American Football League player to rush for 1,000 yards a season. He gained 1,096 in a 14-game schedule, earning him league MVP honors. Gilchrist rushed for a professional football record of 243 yards and five touchdowns in a single game against the New York Jets in 1963. Though he was only with the Bills for three years (1962-1964), he remains the team's fifth-leading rusher all-time, leading the league in scoring while playing in Buffalo. Gilchrist ran for 122 yards in the Bills' 1964 American Football League championship win over the San Diego Chargers. His 4.5 yd/rush average is second to Bill's and only to O.J. Simpson.
In an early civil rights victory for Black athletes, Gilchrist led a successful boycott of New Orleans as the site of the 1965 American Football League All-Star game. He is the only athlete to turn down being enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Museum because of what he described as racism and exploitation by management. Gilchrist frequently was at odds with team management. The American one working for Canadian teams told a reporter from the London Free Press that most of the problems he encountered resulted from his standing up for principles at a time when Black athletes were expected to remain silent.
Gilchrist also played for the Denver Broncos in 1965 and 1967 and the Miami Dolphins in 1966. Cookie Gilchrist was selected as the fullback of the All-Time All-American Football League Team and is a member of the American Football League Hall of Fame. In an article in the Buffalo News on March 18, 2007, Gilchrist, then 71, announced that he had been treated for throat cancer.
One of the American Football League’s first marquee players, Cookie Gilchrist, died of cancer on January 10, 2011, at the age of 75.
