Bobby Mitchell was Legendary

Bobby Mitchell was legendary(Original Caption) Signing footballs instead of carrying them,, crack Cleveland Browns' backs Bobby Mitchell (left) and Jim Brown autograph pigskins in the dressing room. Halfback Mitchell and fullback Brown, the NFL's leading ground gainer, have been instrumental in boosting the Browns into a first place tie with New York in the Eastern Division of the league.

Posted By: County Sports Network April 6, 2020

Bobby Mitchell was legendary on, off the field

By STEVE KING

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death on Sunday of Bobby Mitchell. The Pro Football Hall of Fame running back (Browns) and wide receiver (Washington Redskins) was 84.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting, and interviewing, him twice. They were easily – easily! — two of the top five interviews I have ever had in my career.

Bobby Mitchell was legendary, friendly, accommodating, articulate and well-spoken – a true gentleman in every sense of the term. He was also an outstanding story-teller, being able to intersperse the dramatic, and historic, with the humorous in just the right blend to keep you spellbound, and entertained, to the point that you were sitting on the end of your seat.

Mitchell was, after all, the first African American player in Redskins history when he was traded to them by the Browns in 1962, and with that, then, it, and he, helped to fully integrate the NFL. Yes, it was just 58 years ago – yes, a long time in one regard in that six decades is still six decades, but at the same time a relatively short period in terms of the progress, or lack thereof, in way too many cases in this country – before every team had at least one African American player.

So the Browns, with that trade of Mitchell, were on both ends of the integration timeline. The first Browns team in 1946, of course, broke the color barrier for good in pro football coming out of World War II when Hall of Famers Bill Willis and Marion Motley played in the season-opening game on Sept. 6.     

But it wasn’t just football, as a whole, that was dragging its feet. It was all sports. For instance, it wasn’t until just three years before Mitchell’s arrival in Washington, in 1959, that the Boston Red Sox got their first African American player, thus fully integrating Major League Baseball.

None of this was lost on Mitchell, for he was a staunch civil rights activist off the field. He was one of the many star African American athletes who attended in June 1967 what became known as the Cleveland Summit, where Mitchell and others, including Mitchell’s HOF running mate in Cleveland, Jim Brown, and then UCLA basketball player Lew Alcindor, gathered together and supported Ali’s decision not to enlist in the U.S. military during the Vietnam conflict.

Mitchell worked with the NAACP, United Negro College Fund and National Urban League.

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