 Mitchell with theCleveland Browns in 1959 | |||||||||||||||
| No. 49 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positions | Halfback Wide receiver | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1935-06-06)June 6, 1935 Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Died | April 5, 2020(2020-04-05) (aged 84) | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 192 lb (87 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Langston (Hot Springs) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Illinois (1954–1957) | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1958: 7th round, 84th overall pick | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
Playing | |||||||||||||||
Operations | |||||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
As a player:
As an executive: NFL records: | |||||||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Robert Cornelius Mitchell (June 6, 1935 – April 5, 2020) was an American professionalfootball player who was ahalfback andwide receiver in theNational Football League (NFL). He playedcollege football for theIllinois Fighting Illini and professionally for theCleveland Browns andWashington Redskins. In 1962 he was the first black player to sign with the Redskins, who were the last NFL team toracially integrate.
After his playing career, Mitchell became an executive with Washington. He joined theirscouting department in 1969 and was named assistant general manager in 1981, spending over 40 years with the team in total before retiring in 2002. He was inducted into thePro Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and had his jersey number49 retired by the team following his death in 2020.
Mitchell was born inHot Springs, Arkansas, and attended Langston High School.[1] There, he playedfootball,basketball, andtrack, and was good enough atbaseball to be offered a contract with theSt. Louis Cardinals.[1]
Instead of playingprofessional baseball, Mitchell chose to attend theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which he picked from a host of schools that offered him scholarships.[1] He playedcollege football for theIllinois Fighting Illini and had a particularly good sophomore year. At the beginning of the1955 season, he was behind junior Harry Jefferson on thedepth chart. Seven games into the season, Jefferson went down with an injury, and Mitchell took over at one of the halfback spots.[2] The first time he handled the football, he ran 64 yards for a touchdown.[1] Though he entered in the third quarter, Mitchell gained 173 yards in 10 carries, and the Illini upset third-rankedMichigan, 25–6.[2] He gained more than 100 yards in each of the final two games of the season, when he also played as adefensive back.[2] That year, he averaged a record 8.6 yards per rush.[1]
As a junior in1956, Mitchell did not see the field much due to a knee injury.[2] Afterhis senior season, he was invited to play in theCollege All-Star Game, where he got behinddefensive back,James David on an 84-yard touchdown reception, and then scored again on an 18-yard pass fromJim Ninowski.[1] The All-Stars' upset theDetroit Lions, 35–19, and Mitchell and Ninowski shared gameMVP honors.[1] Mitchell was named first-team All-Big Ten football in 1955 and second-team status in 1957.[2] He was named to The Pigskin Club Honor Roll byThe Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C.[3]
Mitchell was even more successful in track. In February 1958, he set an indoor world record (one that lasted only six days) with a 7.7 mark in the 70-yard low hurdles.[1][2] He was the runner-up in thelong jump at the1958 NCAA Track and Field Championships.[4] In theBig Ten championships, he scored 13 points and helped Illinois win the title.[1] Mitchell was unsure whether he wanted to pursue a career in football or track. Even though the1960 Summer Olympics were still two years away, he had his sights set on competing on the American team.[1] However,Cleveland Browns head coachPaul Brown offered to pay him $7,000 during his rookie season and was able to convince Mitchell to play football instead of participating in the Olympics.[5]
Mitchell wasdrafted in the seventh round of the1958 NFL draft by theCleveland Browns, where he played as ahalfback.[6] He was teamed withJim Brown to give the Browns one of the most successful running back combinations from1958 through1961.[6]
As a rookie, Mitchell had a 98-yard kickoff return. A year later against Washington, he rushed for 232 yards, including a 90-yard scoring scamper, a Browns record until it was broken byNick Chubb in 2018. The same year, he returned a punt 78 yards against theNew York Giants.[1] He earned his firstPro Bowl selection in1960.[7]
As a Brown, Mitchell accumulated 2297 yards rushing, 1463 yards receiving, 607 yards on punt returns, 1550 yards on kickoff returns, and scored 38 touchdowns.[1] He once held the Browns' career record for kickoff returns for touchdowns, and he also currently holds the team's best rookie rushing average (6.3 in 1958).[8]
Under pressure tointegrate the team by theU.S. federal government, theWashington Redskins selected Heisman Trophy winnerErnie Davis with the first overall pick of the1962 NFL draft.[9][10] However, Redskins ownerGeorge Preston Marshall, wary of Davis's potential salary demands, traded his rights to theCleveland Browns for Mitchell and first-round draft pickLeroy Jackson.[9][10][11] Unbeknownst to anyone at the time of the draft, Davis hadleukemia, and died without ever playing a down in professional football.[10]
Mitchell, along withJohn Nisby,Leroy Jackson, andRon Hatcher, was one of four black players on the1962 Redskins, as the franchise became the last professional football team to integrate.[12]Bill McPeak, in his first year as head coach, immediately announced Mitchell would become aflanker. In his first game in Washington, Mitchell ran back a 92-yard kickoff return against theDallas Cowboys.[1] The Redskins finished the season with a 5–7–2 record, their best record in five years.[12] Mitchell led the league with 72 catches and 1384 yards and ranked third with 11 touchdowns.[1][12] He was selected to the first of three consecutive Pro Bowls.[7]
In1963, Mitchell recorded 69 catches for 1436 yards and seven more touchdowns. During this season, he also became the second player in league and franchise history to record a99-yard pass play. The pass fromGeorge Izo was the first 99-yard pass in over 23 years, when the Redskins'Frank Filchock andAndy Farkas set the original record October 15, 1939.[1] During the next four years, Mitchell's reception totals were 60, 60, 58 and 60.[1] In1967, new head coachOtto Graham chose to move Mitchell back tohalfback because of Graham's decision a year earlier to move the team's best running back,Charley Taylor, to wide receiver. Mitchell enjoyed only moderate success running the ball but he did catch 60 passes for 866 yards and six touchdowns.[1]
In1969,Vince Lombardi became head coach and promised Mitchell that he would return him to flanker.[1] But astraining camp progressed, Mitchell realized that he was not in the same shape he once was and chose to retire.[1]
During his first six seasons with the Redskins, Mitchell never caught fewer than 58 passes.[6] When he retired, his 14,078 combined net yards was the second-highest total in NFL history.[6] He had also scored 91 touchdowns (18 by rushing, 65 on receptions, 3 on punt returns, and 5 on kickoff returns). He amassed 7,954 yards on receptions and 2,735 yards on rushes.[6] He was elected to thePro Football Hall of Fame in 1983.[1]
Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post wrote an appreciation of Mitchell after his death: "As a four-way threat — running the ball from the backfield, catching passes as a wide receiver and returning kickoffs and punts — Mitchell is unique. No player has been among the very best in all four areas. Mitchell is a group photo of one ... Who is the only NFL player with more than 500 career rushes and 500 receptions to average more than five yards per carry (5.3) and more than 15 yards per catch (15.3)? Bobby Mitchell."
On June 20, 2020, the Washington Redskins announced that they would retire his number, #49. He was just the second member of the team to have his number retired, alongsideSammy Baugh's #33.[13]
After retiring from football in 1968, Mitchell remained with the Redskins, at the request of thenhead coachVince Lombardi, as a proscout.[14] He gradually moved up in the ranks to assistantgeneral manager in the organization,[10] and he aspired to become the NFL's first black GM.[14] In 1978, Washington ownerEdward Bennett Williams passed over Mitchell for the GM position in favor ofBobby Beathard.[7][14] Mitchell retired in 2003, stating that he was "deeply hurt" by how ownerJack Kent Cooke passed him over as the team's general manager in favor ofCharley Casserly in 1989 and by coachSteve Spurrier's decision to issue his No. 49 uniform number, which had not been issued for years though neverretired, toLeonard Stephens that season.[7][14]
As a player and a front office executive, Mitchell spent 41 years with the Redskins.[14]
Mitchell lived inWashington, D.C., with his wife, Gwen, an attorney. They had two children, Robert Jr. and Terri.[2]
Beginning in 1980, Mitchell hosted the Bobby Mitchell Hall of Fame Classic, an annual golf fundraiser that benefits theLeukemia & Lymphoma Society.[15]
Mitchell also worked in many efforts and organizations, including theUnited Negro College Fund, theHoward University Cancer Research Advisory Committee, theAmerican Lung Association of D.C., theMartin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission, theBoys Club of Washington, theNational Urban League, theNAACP, theJunior Chamber of Commerce, the University of Illinois Presidents Council and the University of Illinois Foundation.[2]
Mitchell died at age 84 on April 5, 2020.[9]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Games | Receiving | Rushing | Returning | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Rec | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | Ret | Yds | Avg | Lng | TD | ||
| 1958 | CLE | 12 | 7 | 16 | 131 | 8.2 | 25 | 3 | 80 | 500 | 6.3 | 63 | 1 | 32 | 619 | 19.3 | 98 | 2 |
| 1959 | CLE | 12 | 12 | 35 | 351 | 10.0 | 76 | 4 | 131 | 743 | 5.7 | 90 | 5 | 28 | 413 | 14.8 | 78 | 1 |
| 1960 | CLE | 12 | 11 | 45 | 612 | 13.6 | 69 | 6 | 111 | 506 | 4.6 | 50 | 5 | 26 | 533 | 20.5 | 90 | 1 |
| 1961 | CLE | 14 | 13 | 32 | 368 | 11.5 | 52 | 3 | 101 | 548 | 5.4 | 56 | 5 | 30 | 592 | 19.7 | 91 | 2 |
| 1962 | WAS | 14 | 14 | 72 | 1,384 | 19.2 | 81 | 11 | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 5 | 0 | 15 | 405 | 27.0 | 92 | 1 |
| 1963 | WAS | 14 | 14 | 69 | 1,436 | 20.8 | 99 | 7 | 3 | 24 | 8.0 | 21 | 0 | 15 | 392 | 26.1 | 92 | 1 |
| 1964 | WAS | 14 | 14 | 60 | 904 | 15.1 | 60 | 10 | 2 | 33 | 16.5 | 19 | 0 | 3 | 58 | 19.3 | 28 | 0 |
| 1965 | WAS | 14 | 12 | 60 | 867 | 14.5 | 80 | 6 | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | 131 | 21.8 | 35 | 0 |
| 1966 | WAS | 14 | 13 | 58 | 905 | 15.6 | 70 | 9 | 13 | 141 | 10.8 | 48 | 1 | 4 | 21 | 5.3 | 13 | 0 |
| 1967 | WAS | 14 | 14 | 60 | 866 | 14.4 | 65 | 6 | 61 | 189 | 3.1 | 16 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1968 | WAS | 14 | 4 | 14 | 130 | 9.3 | 18 | 0 | 10 | 46 | 4.6 | 13 | 0 | 12 | 235 | 19.6 | 43 | 0 |
| Career | 148 | 128 | 521 | 7,954 | 15.3 | 99T | 65 | 513 | 2,735 | 5.3 | 90 | 18 | 171 | 3,389 | 19.8 | 98 | 8 | |
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