Cookie Gilchrist

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In 1963 after a slow start, due to nagging pre season injuries, Gilchrist came alive against the Denver Broncos, rushing for 125 yards and was the spark the 3-4-1 Bills needed to turn their season around. Going into the last two games against the New York Jets, the Bills stood 5-6-1 and their seaon looked over. Gilchrist carried them on his back rushing for 357 yards and scoring six touchdowns. In the first game against the Jets he set the pro football single game rushing record of 243 yards, which stood until 1971.

"He could be an All-Pro today, Bills owner Ralph Wilson said. He had the size, 250 lbs., but could run like Thurman Thomas. He had only a high school education, but he could be very, very entertaining. He was smart, but he was hard to control. He gave us three years and he was very instrumental in our success back in those days."

In that first championship season in 1964, things began to unravel. In November, Cookie was cut by coach Lou Saban after refusing to take the field in the first half of a game, against the Boston Patriots. Just before halftime Saban told Gilchrist to go into the game, even though the Bills were just going to kneel on the ball. Gilchrist, upset that he wasn't getting the ball enough, refused. The Bills went on to lose their first game after winning nine in a row and some say Gilchrist was used as a scapegoat by Saban in a ploy to ignite the team and to solidify his hold on the team. If Saban wasn't afraid to cut one of the best players on the team, if not the league, no one was safe. Gilchrist had also blasted Jack Kemp in an interview with Sport magazine.

"Kemp passes too much and then we get in trouble and Lamonica has to come in and straighten us out. The trouble with Kemp is he uses me 18 to 20 times a game. Lamonica uses me, boom, boom, boom, three or four times in a row, 30 to 35 times a game and I stay hot. Kemp picks his plays out of a hat. Lamonica is smart."

Gilchrist claims to this day that he was mis-quoted.

Ironically it was Kemp who coerced Gilchrist into apologizing to the team for his behavior, which in turn made Lou Saban reinstate Cookie into the line-up. Saban really had no choice, the Bills were on a roll and were riding a great defense but without Cookie they had no chance of winning anything.

“We were close to winning the East and I was afraid that he wasn’t going to come back,” Bills guard Billy Shaw said. “It was selfish on his part, but I would have done anything to help him come back, he didn’t have to apologize to me for anything. It was a scary couple of days. I don’t think we could have won it without Cookie. He was probably the best athlete that I have ever played ball with. He had tremendous strength and was exceptionally quick for a man who weighed 250 pounds.”

In the AFL Championship game, the Bills defense shut down the heavily favored San Diego Chargers and Gilchrist ran for 122 yards on 16 carries as he and the Bills offense kept the ball out of the hands of the high scoring Charger offense. Still, strangely, Cookie was traded to the Denver Broncos the following year for Billy Joe, the '64 AFL rookie of the year.

"It had to happen," Lou Saban said. "The situation between Cookie and the Bills had become impossible. He had been a great player, I wish him well in Denver."

Gilchrist had some off field personal problems in Buffalo and it is believed by more than just a few that he was treated unfairly by the Bills and the Buffalo media. Gilchrist was a very flamboyant individual. He was plucked out of high school illegally by Paul Brown and never finished school. He was used, some say abused for his extraordianry football talents. He was articulate and was not affraid to express his views. In the racially divided sixties this was not considered apropriate behavior by an African American and because of his lack of a formal education, he was an easy target for ridicule by those who for some reason were jealous of his acomplishments.

After the 1964 season 22 black players slated to play in the annual AFL all-star game announced they wouldn't play because of racial incidents that occured in New Orleans, the site of the game. The players said they were refused cab service, refused entrance to into certain restaurants. Black and white players stuck together and the game was moved to Houston.

Not all players stuck together in the boycott however. Patriots linebacker Nick Buoniconti termed the walkout, "a raw deal." Gilchrist publicly blasted Buoniconti for his comments and a month later was traded. Some say Cookie Gilchrist got a raw deal. Who knows what kind of career he might have had, had he been afforded the opportunities of todays athletes.

“Cookie was a leader out there,” said former Bills cornerback, Butch Byrd. “Some say he was a little ahead of his time in his thinking, but when he put on that uniform, he came to play. He was an inspiration. Controversial? Absolutely. But I have high regard for him. Quite honestly I thought it was a mistake when we traded him. I think the Bills management at the time thought it was getting rid of a problem, but we got Billy Joe in a trade and you could see there was a vast difference, the dynamics just weren’t there.” “Jim Brown was the great back during that era, but I have often said that I thought Cookie was every bit as good as Jim Brown. The Buffalo Bills weren’t the team that the Cleveland Browns were at the time, but taking nothing away from Jim Brown, man for man, talent for talent, Cookie was right there.”