Cookie Gilchrist

Cookie Gilchrist

Date of birth	May 25, 1935
Place of birth	Brackenridge, Pennsylvania
Date of death	January 10, 2011 (aged 75)
Place of death	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Career information
Position(s)	Fullback
Uniform number	21, 34, 2, 30
College	None
Career history
As player
1954	ORFU Sarnia Imperials
1955	ORFU Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen
1956–57	CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1958	CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders
1959–61	CFL Toronto Argonauts
1962–64	AFL Buffalo Bills
1965, 1967	AFL Denver Broncos
1966	AFL Miami Dolphins
Career highlights and awards
AFL All-Star	1962, 1963, 1964, 1965
CFL All-Star	1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960
Awards	1960 Runner Up CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award 1962 AP, UPI AFL MVP, 2× AFL Rushing champion (1962, 1964)
Honors	Grey Cup Champion 1957 American Football League Champion, 1964 All-Time All-AFL Fullback
Records	Most rushing touchdowns, season, 13 (1962)
Career stats
Playing stats at DatabaseFootball.com

Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist (May 25, 1935 – January 10, 2011) was a gridiron football player in the American Football League (AFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL).^[1][2]

Career

A star player at Har-Brack High School in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania, in 1953 he led the team to the W.P.I.A.L. co-championship with Donora. As a junior, he was talked into signing a professional football contract with the NFL's Cleveland Browns by Paul Brown. The signing was against NFL rules and likely illegal, and when Brown reneged on his promise that Gilchrist would make the team, Gilchrist left training camp at Hiram College, in Hiram, Ohio, and went to Canada to play. There, in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU), he received the Jim Shanks (Team MVP) Trophy for the Sarnia Imperials in 1954, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen's Team MVP Award in 1955.

In 1956, he joined the Canadian Football League (CFL) with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, helping lead them to a 1957 Grey Cup victory. He spent one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, rushing for 1,254 yards. He then was traded to the Toronto Argonauts for Tex Schwierer, and played three years in Toronto.^[3] In his six years in the CFL, Gilchrist was a divisional All-Star at running back five consecutive years from 1956 to 1960 (there were no All-Canadians selected in those years) and was also an Eastern All-Star at linebacker in 1960. Additionally, in 1960 he was runner up for the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award. In his CFL career, Gilchrist recorded 4,911 rushing yards, 1,068 receiving yards and 12 interceptions.

Gilchrist then joined the roster of the Buffalo Bills of the fledgling American Football League. Incidentally, Gilchrist was Buffalo's backup plan: they had actually drafted Ernie Davis to be the team's franchise running back in 1962. Davis instead chose the NFL, but died of leukemia before ever playing a down of professional football. The Bills instead signed Gilchrist as a free agent. While with Buffalo, Gilchrist played fullback and kicked, though he insisted he could have played both ways. He was the first 1,000-yard American Football League rusher, with 1,096 yards in a 14-game schedule in 1962. That year he set the all-time AFL record for touchdowns with 13, and he earned AFL MVP honors. Gilchrist rushed for a professional football record 243 yards and five touchdowns in a single game against the New York Jets in 1963. Though he was with the Bills for only three years (1962–1964), he remains the team's ninth-leading rusher all-time,^[4] and led the league in scoring in each of his three years as a Bill. Gilchrist ran for 122 yards in the Bills' 1964 American Football League championship defeat of the San Diego Chargers, 20-7. His 4.5 yard/rush average is second as a Bill 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 into 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. He told a reporter from the London Free Press that most of the problems he encountered were a result of 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 for the Miami Dolphins in 1966. He was sent to the man who started his career, Paul Brown in the Cincinnati Bengals expansion draft in 1968, but retired because of knee problems. He was an American Football League All-Star in 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965, making him one of only a few professional football players who made their league's All-Star team for 10 consecutive years (six in the CFL, and four in the AFL). Gilchrist was selected as the fullback of the All-Time American Football League Team. The Professional Football Researchers Association named Gilchrist to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2013 ^[5]

Career regular season statistics

Team			Rushing					Receiving					Field Goals & Converts						Interceptions
Year	Team	GP	Rushes	Yards	Avg.	Lg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	Lg	TD	FG	Made	Avg.	S	Con	Good	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD
1956	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	-	130	832	6.4	70	2	18	297	15.5	40	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	7	3.5	6	0
1957	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	-	204	958	4.7	57	7	8	82	10.3	19	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	65	21.7	55	2
1958	Saskatchewan Roughriders	-	235	1254	5.3	73	5	15	144	9.6	41	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1959	Toronto Argonauts	-	87	496	5.7	69	4	5	70	14.0	38	1	14	9	64.3	0	24	16	4	66	16.5	32	0
1960	Toronto Argonauts	14	88	662	7.5	74	6	25	346	13.8	42	2	18	5	27.8	0	48	43	1	16	16.0	16	0
1961	Toronto Argonauts	12	105	709	6.8	67	3	15	147	9.8	24	0	9	5	55.6	3	11	5	2	41	20.5	35	0
1962	Buffalo Bills	14	214	1096	5.1	44	13	24	319	13.3	76	2	20	8	40	0	17	14	0	0	0	0	0
1963	Buffalo Bills	14	232	979	4.2	32	12	24	211	8.8	42	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1964	Buffalo Bills	14	230	981	4.3	67	6	30	345	11.5	37	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1965	Denver Broncos	14	252	954	3.8	44	6	18	154	8.6	29	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1966	Miami Dolphins	8	72	262	3.6	22	0	13	110	8.5	22	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1967	Denver Broncos	1	10	21	2.1	6	0	1	-4	-4.0	-4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	CFL Totals	-	849	4911	5.8	74	28	86	1068	12.4	42	5	41	19	46.3	4	83	64	12	195	16.3	55	2
	AFL Totals	65	1010	4293	4.3	67	37	110	1135	10.3	76	6	20	8	40.0	0	17	14	0	0	0	0	0
	Career Totals	-	1859	9204	5.0	74	65	196	2203	11.2	76	11	61	27	44.3	4	100	78	12	195	16.3	55	2

After football

Gilchrist had numerous feuds with the people he worked with during his football career. He refused entry into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame on account that he did not believe he was paid well enough for his service.^[6][7] He also refused to accept enshrinement on the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame because he wanted payment for appearing; Van Miller eventually convinced Gilchrist to change his mind, but Gilchrist was not inducted prior to his death.^[8] Gilchrist was posthumously inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.^[9] Gilchrist did accept induction onto the Bills' Wall of Honor, the predecessor to the Wall of Fame that had been set up at War Memorial Stadium in 1970, but none of the honorees on that wall were carried over to Ralph Wilson Stadium when it was built in 1973.^[10]

In an article in The Buffalo News on March 18, 2007, Gilchrist, then 71, announced that he was being treated for throat cancer. At the time, he lived in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania.

On January 10, 2011, Gilchrist died at an assisted living facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[6][11] Gilchrist was posthumously diagnosed with stage four chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which may explain, in part, some of his behavioural difficulties.^[7] Gilchrist was aware of the possibility that he had the disease when writing his autobiography, The Cookie That Did Not Crumble, along with Chris Garbarino. Consequently, he donated his brain to the Canadian Sports Concussion Project for use in their study of CTE.

Personal life

In 1969, Gilchrist dated Jessica Cleaves of The Friends of Distinction.^[12]

Honors

• First American Football League player to gain over 1,000 yards in a season (14 games, 1,096 yards in 1962)
• Previously held the American professional football record for most yards rushing in a game, 243 yards vs. the New York Jets, on December 8, 1963.
• His number 34 has been unofficially set aside by the Buffalo Bills, to honor both him and Thurman Thomas, who also wore the number.^[13]
• Honored by the Professional Football Researchers Association's “Hall of Very Good,” a collection of outstanding professional football players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as part of its 2013 class.^[14]

See also

• List of American Football League players

References

1. "Cookie Gilchrist". Legacy.com. obituary. January 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
2. Goldstein, Richard (January 10, 2011). "Cookie Gilchrist, early star of the A.F.L., dies at 75". New York Times. obituary. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
3. Toronto Star, Thursday 28 July 1960, page 15.
4. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/career-rushing.htm
5. "Professional Researchers Association Hall of Very Good Class of 2013". Retrieved November 10, 2016.
6. Graham, Tim (2011-01-11). Cookie Gilchrist rumbled right until the end. ESPN.com. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
7. Gaughan, Mark (November 6, 2011). Gilchrist had severe damage to brain. The Buffalo News. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
8. Van Miller on the passing of Bills RB Cookie Gilchrist. WIVB-TV. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
9. Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame 2011. WIVB-TV. Retrieved 2011-06-15.
10. Sullivan, Jerry (June 29, 2015). "Door may be ajar to honor Bills greats Saban, Gilchrist". The Buffalo News. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
11. Although the obituary published on January 10, 2011 in the New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/sports/11gilchrist.html?_r=0/> and on January 10, 2011 in the Buffalo News <http://www.legacy.com/ns/obituary.aspx?n=cookie-gilchrist&pid=147733753/> both say he died in Pittsburgh.
12. <http://jessicacleaves.blogspot.com/2014/05/press.html?m=1>. “Jessica Cleaves blogspot”.
13. Brown, Chris (2011-06-17). The untouchable numbers. BuffaloBills.com. Retrieved 2011-06-17.
14. http://www.profootballresearchers.org/HOVG.htm

External links

• Official website – maintained by the Gilchrist family
• Obituary from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Cookie Gilchrist's CFL statistics
• Career statistics and player information from NFL.com • Pro-Football-Reference • Databasefootball.com
• Cookie Gilchrist at Find a Grave