26 Facts About Cookie Gilchrist

1.

Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist was an American football player who played professionally in the American Football League and Canadian Football League.

2.

The signing was against NFL rules and likely illegal, and when Brown reneged on his promise that Cookie Gilchrist would make the team, Cookie Gilchrist left training camp at Hiram College, in Hiram, Ohio, and went to Canada to play.

3.

Cookie Gilchrist spent one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, rushing for 1,254 yards.

4.

Cookie Gilchrist then was traded to the Toronto Argonauts for Tex Schwierer, and played three years in Toronto.

5.

Cookie Gilchrist then joined the roster of the Buffalo Bills of the fledgling American Football League.

6.

Incidentally, Cookie Gilchrist was Buffalo's backup plan: they had actually drafted Ernie Davis to be the team's franchise running back in 1962.

7.

Cookie Gilchrist was the first 1,000-yard American Football League rusher, with 1,096 yards in a 14-game schedule in 1962.

8.

Cookie Gilchrist rushed for a professional football record 243 yards and five touchdowns in a single game against the New York Jets in 1963.

9.

Cookie Gilchrist ran with high knees and did not avoid contact.

10.

Cookie Gilchrist 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.

11.

However, Cookie Gilchrist had stated before his death that he never turned down the Hall, instead stating that it was "not that simple".

12.

Cookie Gilchrist 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.

13.

Cookie Gilchrist was traded to the Denver Broncos before the 1965 season in exchange for fullback Billy Joe and cash.

14.

Cookie Gilchrist played for the Broncos in 1965 and 1967, and for the Miami Dolphins in 1966.

15.

Cookie Gilchrist 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.

16.

Cookie Gilchrist 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.

17.

Cookie Gilchrist was selected as the fullback of the All-Time American Football League Team.

18.

Cookie Gilchrist was named to the Bills' Wall of Fame during the team's home game on October 29,2017, against the Oakland Raiders.

19.

In 1974, Cookie Gilchrist founded the United Athletes Coalition of America to help former football players adjust to life after retirement.

20.

Cookie Gilchrist had numerous feuds with the people he worked with during his football career.

21.

Cookie Gilchrist refused entry into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame because he did not believe he was paid well enough for his service.

22.

Cookie Gilchrist 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.

23.

Cookie Gilchrist was posthumously inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

24.

Cookie 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 Rich Stadium when it was built in 1973.

25.

On January 10,2011, Cookie Gilchrist died at an assisted living facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

26.

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.