The often-told story about Charlie Powell is that as a 20-year-old defensive end playing his first game for the San Francisco 49ers in 1952, he sacked Bobby Layne, the legendary quarterback for the Detroit Lions, 10 times.
It’s a difficult claim to either believe or disprove, but in any case Powell, who died on Monday in San Diego at 82, was the sort of athlete about whom Bunyanesque mythology was reasonably applied. There’s another story about his hitting a home run not only clear out of a ballpark but over the highway cloverleaf beyond it.
The verifiable facts include these: He ran 100 yards in under 10 seconds. He put the shot more than 57 feet. He was signed as a slugging outfielder by the St. Louis Browns. He played seven seasons of pro football, with the 49ers and later with the Oakland Raiders in the fledgling years of the old American Football League.
And, oh yeah, in the off-season he boxed: In 39 bouts as a professional fighter, Powell was 25-11-3, including, in 1959, an eight-round technical knockout of Nino Valdes that elevated him to the top ranks of the world’s heavyweight contenders. He knocked out 17 opponents. Toward the end of his career, he lost to a future champion, Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), in 1963, and a former one, Floyd Patterson, in 1964.
Last year U-T San Diego (formerly The San Diego Union-Tribune) called Powell “arguably the greatest athlete ever to come out of San Diego County” — a place that also produced Ted Williams, Marcus Allen and Greg Louganis. He was attending a reunion of his wife’s family when he died. His brother Jerry said the cause was undetermined.
“When the conversation veers around to all-around athletes, it gets to Charlie Powell in a hurry,” the venerable Los Angeles Times sportswriter Jim Murray wrote in 1998. “There’s Jim Thorpe, Jackie Robinson, and, well, how about Charlie Powell?”
Charles Elvin Powell was born in Dallas on April, 4, 1932, the second of nine children of Elvin Powell and the former Johnnie Mae Martin. His father, who Jerry Powell said was a scratch golfer and a leading tennis player on Texas’s segregated black tennis circuit, moved the family to San Diego in 1937, and he worked in construction there as a cement finisher.
A standout athlete from a young age, Charlie took boxing lessons from a neighbor, Archie Moore, later the world light-heavyweight champion, and boxed at the local boys club. But, Jerry Powell said, “they had to stop him because he was knocking too many guys out.”
At San Diego High School, he earned 12 varsity letters, three each in football, basketball — reportedly the Harlem Globetrotters offered him a tryout after seeing him play, but his parents wanted to keep him in school — baseball and track, in which he competed in sprints, the high jump and the shot put. He often competed in a meet and a baseball game on the same afternoon.
The St. Louis Browns signed Powell to a minor league contract, and after graduating from high school he played a summer for the Stockton Ports, their Class C affiliate. But he decided he did not care enough for baseball and switched sports, joining the 49ers and playing his first game when he was just 20. (Many articles about Powell say that he was the youngest ever to play in the National Football League, but according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the N.F.L.’s official statisticians, younger players had preceded him.)
Statistics from that era, especially defensive statistics, are sketchy, but in five seasons he played in 55 games with the 49ers, and after skipping two years to focus on boxing, he returned to football with the Raiders, playing 28 games during the first two seasons, 1960 and 1961, of the A.F.L.
Powell, who had also skipped a year of football in favor of boxing in 1954, always thought he’d have come closer to a crown if he had concentrated only on the ring. He played football at between 225 and 235 pounds; his boxing weight was between 210 and 220.
“Trouble was I’d have to take weight off in the summertime and put it back on in the wintertime for football,” he told the writer Gay Talese, who covered the Patterson fight for The New York Times. “It was off and on, off and on, and I couldn’t concentrate on either sport.”
After his days as a pro athlete — he hung up his gloves in 1965 — Powell worked as a salesman in the aerospace equipment industry and for an industrial cleaning supply business.
Powell, who lived in Altadena, Calif., married Irma Wesson in 1954. In addition to his wife and his brother Jerry, who was a receiver and a kick returner for the Honolulu Hawaiians of the short-lived World Football League in the 1970s, he is survived by a sister, Carmen Powell, and three other brothers: Tony, Ellsworth and Art, who played 10 seasons of professional football, mostly as a receiver.
So what of those 10 quarterback sacks? The official record for sacks by a single player in a single game is seven, by Derrick Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs against the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 11, 1990, but the sack did not become an official statistic until 1982. According to box scores compiled byPro-Football-Reference.com of the games between the 49ers and the Lions in 1952, the Lions quarterback was not sacked in one game and was sacked five times in another. Still, there are witnesses, including Art Powell, who was 15 at the time and said he watched the game on television.
“He killed Lou Creekmur, just killed him,” Art Powell said in an interview, referring to the Lions tackle his brother overpowered, evidently again and again. “He sacked Bobby Layne a zillion times.”
*****
Charles Elvin Powell (April 4, 1932 – September 1, 2014) was an American professional football player.
Powell was born in Texas. He and his younger brother Art Powell, a great NFL wide receiver for the Oakland Raidersin the 1960s, grew up in the Logan Heights area of San Diego, California.
Powell played professional baseball and football as well as boxed. His greatest success was as an NFL player and a boxer, even matching against Muhammed Ali.
Contents
[hide]High School[edit]
Charlie starred in football, basketball, track and baseball at San Diego High School. In 1950, as a 6'-3", 230-pound defensive end and offensive end, with tremendous power and speed, he was named the California high school football player of the year. In track, he ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds and threw the shot put 57 feet 9¼ inches. In basketball, he was a second-team all-league center. As a high school baseball player, he hit balls out of San Diego Balboa Stadium. He turned a down an offer of a tryout by the Harlem Globetrotters.
Baseball career[edit]
After High School, Charlie was recruited by Notre Dame and UCLA to play football, St. Louis Browns baseball owner Bill Veeck, who had acquired the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige from the Cleveland Indians, signed the power-hitting outfielder to a professional baseball contract. He was sent to the Stockton Ports, a Class B minor league team.
Football career[edit]
But after playing pro baseball in the summer of 1952, Charlie suddenly abandoned his pro baseball career and signed a pro football contract with the San Francisco 49ers. At 19, he became the youngest player in NFL history. In his first game, he started against the NFL champion Detroit Lions and had multiple sacks against QB Bobby Layne totaling 67 yards in losses.
Powell played five seasons in the NFL for the 49ers (1952–53 and 1955–57) and two for the Oakland Raiders (1960–61).
Boxing career[edit]
Powell was also a professional boxer. In March 1959, on television, he knocked out Nino Valdes of Cuba who was the number 2 ranked heavyweight fighter in the world at the time. He fought Muhammad Ali (who was then known as Cassius Clay) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on January 24, 1963. He was knocked out in the third round. He finished his pro boxing career with a record of 25-11-3. In his career, Charlie also fought Floyd Patterson, losing to him in 6 rounds.
Retirement[edit]
Powell is a member of the Breitbard San Diego Hall of Fame. He was last known to be living in the Pasadena, California area.
Death[edit]
*****
Charles Elvin Powell (April 4, 1932 – September 1, 2014) was an American professional football player.
Powell was born in Texas. He and his younger brother Art Powell, a great NFL wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders in the 1960s, grew up in the Logan Heights area of San Diego, California.
Powell played professional baseball and football as well as boxed. His greatest success was as an NFL player and a boxer, even fighting Muhammad Ali.
Charlie starred in football, basketball, track and baseball at San Diego High School. In 1950, as a 6'-3", 230-pound defensive end and offensive end, with tremendous power and speed, he was named the California high school football player of the year. In track, he ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds and threw the shot put 57 feet 9¼ inches. In basketball, he was a second-team all-league center. As a high school baseball player, he hit balls out of San Diego Balboa Stadium. He turned a down an offer of a tryout by the Harlem Globetrotters.
After High School, Charlie was recruited by Notre Dame and UCLA to play football, St. Louis Browns baseball owner Bill Veeck, who had acquired the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige from the Cleveland Indians, signed the power-hitting outfielder to a professional baseball contract. He was sent to the Stockton Ports, a Class B minor league team.
After playing pro baseball in the summer of 1952, Charlie suddenly abandoned his pro baseball career and signed a pro football contract with the San Francisco 49ers. At 19, he became the youngest player in NFL history. In his first game, he started against the NFL champion Detroit Lions and had multiple sacks against QB Bobby Layne totaling 67 yards in losses.
Powell played five seasons in the NFL for the 49ers (1952–53 and 1955–57) and two for the Oakland Raiders (1960–61).
Powell was also a professional boxer. In March 1959, on television, he knocked out Nino Valdes of Cuba who was the number 2 ranked heavyweight fighter in the world at the time. Powell fought Muhammad Ali (who was then known as Cassius Clay) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on January 24, 1963. He was knocked out in the third round. He finished his pro boxing career with a record of 25-11-3. In his career, Charlie also fought Floyd Patterson, losing to him in 6 rounds.
Powell was a member of the Breitbard San Diego Hall of Fame. Powell died on September 1, 2014, at age of 82 after living with dementia for several years.
No comments:
Post a Comment