.jpg) Lowe,c. 1961 | |||||||||||||||
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| Position | Halfback | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1936-09-27)September 27, 1936 (age 89) Homer, Louisiana, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 205 lb (93 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Centennial(Compton, California) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Oregon State (1955–1958) | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1959: undrafted | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
* Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
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| Career AFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Paul Edward Lowe (born September 27, 1936) is an American former professionalfootball player who was ahalfback in theAmerican Football League (AFL), primarily with theLos Angeles /San Diego Chargers. A four-timeAll-AFL selection and two-timeAFL All-Star, he was named to theAFL All-Time Team.
Lowe playedcollege football for theOregon State Beavers. He won anAFL championship with the Chargers in 1963. He led the league inrushing yards in 1965, when he was named theAFL Player of the Year. Lowe finished his career with theKansas City Chiefs, receiving achampionship ring after they wonSuper Bowl IV. He was inducted into theChargers Hall of Fame and named to their40th and50th anniversary teams.
Lowe was born inHomer, Louisiana, and grew up in the Los Angeles area.[1] A native ofCompton, California, he jumped the fence ofLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum as a child to watchLos Angeles Rams games.[2] He attendedCentennial High School, where he was a standout in football,track, andbasketball.[1]
Lowe attendedOregon State University and played underBeavers coachTommy Prothro.[3] In hissophomore year in1956, he played as the No. 2tailback behind starterJoe Francis in the Beavers'single-wing offense.[3][4][5] Lowe rushed 113 times for 407 yards and six touchdowns, and completed 13 of 26 passes for 293 yards.[6] He received honorable mention for theAll-America team from theUnited Press,[7] who also named him to the second team ofthe All-Coast team.[8] Oregon State won thePacific Coast Conference and was ranked 10th nationally. They played in the1957 Rose Bowl, losing to No. 3Iowa for the second time in the season.[9][10][11]
Shortly after the Rose Bowl, Oregon State suspended Lowe due to lowgrades.[4][12] After raising his grades injunior college, he returned to Oregon State the following year in1958.[12] He failed to meet expectations and was primarily a backup to Grimm Mason andDainard Paulson,[12] finishing with 62 rushes for 162 yards and two touchdowns along with 100 yards on 6 of 17 passing.[6] After the season, Lowe withdrew from school due to financial and academic difficulties.[12]
After leaving Oregon State University, Lowe was undrafted in the1959 NFL draft. He played for theSan Francisco 49ers during the 1959 pre-season before being released in the final cut after hurting his ankle before the regular season began.[1] He returned to Los Angeles, and looked for a job to support his wife and four children. He took a job in the mailroom for theCarte Blanche Corporation, owned by theHilton family.[13]
In 1960,Barron Hilton, son of famed hotel magnateConrad Hilton, was the original owner of theLos Angeles Chargers, a start-up team in the newly formedAmerican Football League. Chargers general managerFrank Leahy asked Lowe to come out to training camp based on his performance at Oregon State a few years back.[13] Lowe joined the Chargers as afree agent.[14] He returned his first touch of the football in the AFL for a 105-yard touchdown in the Chargers' first-ever exhibition game.That season, he led the team to a 10–4 record and a Western Division championship.[15] He had a team-high 855 yards rushing on 136 carries for a career-high 6.3 yards per carry average, and also had 23 receptions for 377 yards.[1][15] Lowe finished No. 2 in the league in rushing, 20 yards behindAbner Haynes of theDallas Texans,[16] and earned first-teamAll-AFL honors as ahalfback.[15] In the1960 AFL championship game, Lowe ran for 165 yards.[1]
In the season opener of1961 against the Texans, with the team now based in San Diego, Lowe had the Chargers' longest run from scrimmage with an 87-yard run, a record that still stands.[1][13] He missed the1962 season after breaking his arm.[1] He returned and ran for 1,010 yards in1963, when theAssociated Press named him theAFL Comeback Player of the Year.[17] Inthe AFL championship game, Lowe rushed for 94 yards on 12 carries, including a 58-yard touchdown, in a 51–10 win overBoston.[3] Limited by a muscle injury in1964,[17] his production fell to 496 yards.[15]
In1965, Lowe was named theAFL Player of the Year byThe Sporting News after a then-league-record 1,121 yards rushing and six touchdowns (14-game schedule).[1][18] He became the first AFL player to rush for 1,000 yards twice after gaining 99 yards in a 37–26 win over theHouston Oilers, clinching the Chargers' fifth Western Division title in six years.[19] In the regular season finale against theOakland Raiders, he brokeClem Daniels' AFL single-season record of 1,099 rushing yards, set by the Raider in 1963.[20] Again named the AFL's comeback player of the year,[17] Lowe was also tied for second with teammateLance Alworth in voting byUnited Press International fortheir AFL player of the year award, won byJack Kemp.[21]
Lowe rushed for 643 yards the following season in1966, and his output fell to 71 yards on 2.5 yards per carry in1967. After running for nine yards on his only carry in the1968 season-opener win overCincinnati, he waswaived by San Diego. He was 28 yards shy of the 5,000-yard career milestone.[22] Lowe joined theKansas City Chiefs as afree agent after all six of their running backs were injured.[23] On his first running play with the Chiefs, he separated his shoulder,[24] and missed the rest of the season. In his final season in1969, he passed 5,000 yards against Boston on September 21 after rushing eight times for 40 yards, surpassing the mark on the final play after asweep for eight yards.[25] He joined Daniels as the only AFL players to reach the milestone.[26] However, Lowe fell below the mark after losing yards against the Chargers on the final carry of his career.[1][27] Shortly after, he was hospitalized to treat a bleeding ulcer.[28] Lowe retired and left the team with one game remaining in the regular season.[29] Kansas City defeatedMinnesota 23–7 inSuper Bowl IV that season, and he received aSuper Bowl ring.[3]
Lowe was a four-timeAll-AFL selection, including twice on the first team, as well as a two-timeAFL All-Star.[30] He averaged 4.9 yards per carry during his career, which is the highest in Chargers franchise history and tops in the AFL.[31] He set a pro football record with six games gaining 100+ yards on 14 carries or less. Lowe's career rushing total of 4,995 yards are the second-most in AFL history.[14] He led the Chargers in rushing five times, including two 1,000 yard seasons.[1] His 4,972 yards with the Chargers remained a team career record until 2004, when he was surpassed byLaDainian Tomlinson.[32] Lowe was the AFL leader or runner-up in rushing touchdowns four times.[32] He is also one of only twenty players who were in the AFL for its entire ten-year existence.[14]
In 1970, thePro Football Hall of Fame named Lowe as a running back on theAll-Time All-AFL Team. In 1979, the Chargers inducted him into theChargers Hall of Fame.[30] As of 2006, Lowe was living in San Diego and supports his team as a season ticket holder.[13]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| AFL MVP | |
| Won theAFL Championship | |
| Super Bowl champion | |
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Games | Rushing | Receiving | Fumbles | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Att | Yds | Avg | Y/G | Lng | TD | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Fum | ||
| 1960 | LAC | 14 | 12 | 136 | 855 | 6.3 | 61.1 | 76 | 8 | 23 | 377 | 16.4 | 63 | 2 | 2 |
| 1961 | SD | 14 | 14 | 175 | 767 | 4.4 | 54.8 | 87 | 9 | 17 | 103 | 6.1 | 17 | 0 | 6 |
| 1962 | SD | Missed season due to injury | |||||||||||||
| 1963 | SD | 14 | 12 | 177 | 1,010 | 5.7 | 72.1 | 66 | 8 | 26 | 191 | 7.3 | 31 | 2 | 7 |
| 1964 | SD | 12 | 9 | 130 | 496 | 3.8 | 41.3 | 50 | 3 | 14 | 182 | 13.0 | 41 | 2 | 2 |
| 1965 | SD | 14 | 14 | 222 | 1,121 | 5.0 | 80.1 | 59 | 6 | 17 | 126 | 7.4 | 45 | 1 | 2 |
| 1966 | SD | 14 | 11 | 146 | 643 | 4.4 | 45.9 | 57 | 3 | 12 | 41 | 3.4 | 11 | 0 | 3 |
| 1967 | SD | 7 | 2 | 28 | 71 | 2.5 | 10.1 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 12.5 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| 1968 | SD | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | 0 |
| KC | 1 | 0 | 1 | -10 | -10.0 | -10.0 | -10 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | 0 | |
| 1969 | KC | 7 | 0 | 10 | 33 | 3.3 | 4.7 | 18 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | 0 |
| Career | 98 | 74 | 1,026 | 4,995 | 4.9 | 51.0 | 87 | 38 | 111 | 1,045 | 9.4 | 63 | 7 | 23 | |
Lowe has experienced ringing in his ears since 1965. In 2017, aneurologist diagnosed that aCT scan "showed atrophy of frontal lobes, and his testing showed...moderate dementia". In 2018, Lowe signed papers that awarded him $25,000 (before lawyer fees) from theNFL concussion settlement.[33]
| Preceded by | American Football League MVP 1965 withJack Kemp | Succeeded by |