Cookie Gilchrist
A legendary player in the American Football League, Carlton Chester Cookie Gilchrist (born 1935) came from six years in the Canadian Football League, where he played fullback, linebacker, and placekicker. For the Buffalo Bills, he ran and kicked, though he insisted he could have played both ways. The first American Football League player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season (in a 14-game schedule), Gilchrist rushed for a professional football record 243 yards in a single game against the New York Jets in 1963. Though he was only with the Bills for three years (1962-1964), he remains the team's fifth leading rusher all-time, 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 yds/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 also played for the Denver Broncos in 1965 and 1967, and the Miami Dolphins in 1966. A member of the American Football League Hall of Fame.
