Art Powell: HOF unfinished business
2024 Senior Finalist rates among top WRs in football history
(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s plight to select the Class of 2025 with a new process and personnel. Written by Frank Cooney, a Senior Blue Ribbon Selection Committee member, in his 32nd year as a selector.)
In its nominations for the Class of 2024, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Senior Selection Committee got it right by naming wide receiver Art Powell as a finalist.
I will reaffirm his ample HOF worthiness a bit later.
However, after one of the Hall of Fame’s most discrepant discussions in a selection meeting, Powell was one of two subcommittee nominees rejected for failing to get the 80 percent thumbs up required for induction.
We certainly don’t think the 80 percent approval should be a rubber-stamp situation. After all, it was the first time Powell was officially discussed, some 55 years after retiring. That calls for a bit of homework.
The Senior Committee includes selectors who average more than 45 years covering the NFL and they are not an easy sell. If a player gets their endorsement as a finalist, there should be a damned good reason to reject him.
When I debriefed fellow selectors in the weeks following the meeting, I found that wasn't the case. I could accept a comment like “I just didn’t like him.” That’s fair. But the theme was that they just didn’t know much about him.
Really? A massive amount of material was created on Powell expressly for the selectors. They did need to read it, however. More importantly, if you want to be a selector, make sure you know the candidates before the meeting or don’t bother to show up.
Two selectors later presented comments or curiosities that I will address here — one on defensive tactics Powell (1959–68) faced, which I characterized as legalized muggings, and the other who questioned the veracity of AFL statistics from the 1960s.
Regarding defensive tactics, the selector initially said tactics in the 1960s weren’t that different from current times. But after pointing out massive rule changes to safeguard receivers since then, he changed his tune to “defenses weren’t as sophisticated back then.”
Got that right. They were as sophisticated as a punch in the mouth.
Statistics are tricky. One excellent way to create context is to use data from other players of that era who became known entities—especially Hall of Famers, since that is the topic here.
Powell was a teammate of two wide receivers who became Hall of Famers — Don Maynard and Fred Biletnikoff. In fact, in 1960, Powell and Maynard became the first teammates to each catch passes for at least 1,000 yards. They did it again in 1962.
But in their three seasons playing for the New York Titans (who became the Jets), Powell caught 33 more passes for 243 more yards and five more TDs than Maynard. With the Oakland Raiders in 1965 and 1966, Powell caught 64 more passes for 1,224 more yards and 20 more TDs than Biletnikoff.
Not even close, right? But wait, there’s more.
Powell also played five years (1962–66) simultaneously with legendary Hall of Famers Lance Alworth and, of course, Maynard. During that time, Powell caught 44 more passes and scored four more touchdowns than Alworth, and had 62 more receptions, 895 more yards, and 13 more touchdowns than Maynard.
It is easy to see in this chart:
Powell vs. HOF teammates and peers
Powell’s career ended in 1967 due to a knee injury, while Biletnikoff, Maynard and Alworth played a few more seasons. However, this comparison is a decent way to understand Powell’s relative ability, juxtaposed with well-known future HOF players. The others marched right into the Hall of Fame. Looking at this, it appears he should have done the same.
It’s right there in black and white.
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While looking at stats, let’s update Powell’s lofty standing among wide receivers in the game's history.
Summarizing, Powell is:
🏈No. 2 in touchdown catches per game (77.14 percent, 81 TDs in 105 games at WR), second only to the great Don Hutson (85.34 percent, 99 TDs in 116 games)
🏈No. 4 in TD frequency (one every 5.91 catches)
🏈No. 7 in yards receiving per game (76.6 yards)
Let’s Drill in.
TD catches per game: No. 2 in Pro Football History
Now 56 years since playing his final pro football game in a league over 100 years old, Art Powell remains No. 2 in history for most touchdowns receiving per game. In his 105 games at wide receiver, Powell's 81 touchdown catches put him at .77 per contest.
That is second only to the legendary Don Hutson (.85). Yes, well ahead of such honored stars as Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Marvin Harrison, Jerry Rice and any others one might mention.
On the top-10 list, Powell is the only eligible player not inducted.
TDs per Game — No. 2
TD frequency — No. 4
Powell is fourth in pro football history in touchdown frequency, with one every 5.9 catches, behind only Don Hutson, Paul Warfield and Tommy McDonald.
Hall of Fame players indicated in gold (minimum 400 catches):
Yards receiving per game — No. 7
With more than a century of pro football data dutifully logged, Powell still stands seventh in most yards receiving per game at 76.6 yards per (counting wide receivers with at 100 games). But he was No. 1 before rules changes significantly changed the game.
The six men ahead of Powell on this list — Calvin Johnson, Antonio Brown, Marvin Harrison, DeAndre Hopkins, Torry Holt and Tyreek Hill — all played after the turn of the century under the protection of liberalized rules favoring the health, well-being and prolific production of receivers.
Only Powell and Alworth (75.5, 1962–1972) played before the one-chuck rule in 1978, the first of several changes that limited a defender's contact on a wide receiver.
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Making an impact
Statistics are great, but a Hall of Fame player must be more than numbers. He must make an impact. When given a chance, Powell was one of the most impactful players in pro football.
After the Philadelphia Eagles misused him only as a defensive back/returner in 1959, he had a breakout year in 1960 with the American Football League Titans. He and Maynard each caught passes for more than 1,000 yards — a first for two teammates — and repeated the feat in 1962.
After the 1962 season, financially strapped Titans owner Harry Wismer wanted to auction Powell to the highest bidder. Powell knew he was a free agent and went home to his wife Betty in Toronto. Several teams were interested, and the Buffalo Bills even signed him to a contract but feared that turning that contract into the league office would cost them in compensation. There was confusion aplenty.
In December 1962, the Raiders hired 33-year-old rookie head coach Al Davis, who already knew about Powell’s ability. He saw it as an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers while doing film cutups of the Titans.
Art Powell was the target of the first of many moves Davis would make that shocked the pro football world. He called Powell in Toronto.
“He told me he’d bought a plane ticket and for me to pick him up at the airport,” Powell said. “My wife and I took Al to dinner. We went back to our apartment, and he told me how he would give me a chance to stretch out and show what kind of receiver I could really be. Being the salesman he is, he had a signed contract with my name on it when he left.”
It was quite a sales pitch by the young coach who was taking over one of the worst teams in football after a 1-13 season in 1962. Davis arrived back in Oakland on December 31, signed contract in hand, ready to hail in a very new year, and a new era, for the heretofore woeful Raiders.
In 1963, Powell led the league with 1,304 yards receiving and 16 touchdowns as the Raiders were No. 1 with 32 touchdown passes and finished 10-4. Against the 1-13 season in 1962, this marked the biggest one-season turnaround in professional sports history.
That’s impact.
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Let's explore Powell's incredible career further and seek answers to why he disappeared from pro football's consciousness for so long before becoming a finalist for the Hall of Fame’s 2024 Class.
At about 6-3, 212 pounds with a daunting combination of size and speed, and the physicality and attitude of a linebacker, Powell was ahead of his time as an unstoppable force on the field.
"He was a quiet man whose actions spoke volumes," said former All-Pro cornerback Fred "Hammer" Williamson, an opponent and teammate. "He was feared. If he played with these current hands-off rules … oh my gosh, Powell would dominate. He was not someone you trifled with on or off the field. Did I say he was feared?"
Powell acknowledged he was probably difficult to deal with on and off the field much of the time. His resolute demeanor often left little room for easy, casual interaction. The media portrayed him as a troublemaker, and he found it difficult to warm up to many players, including teammates.
Regardless of his mindset, Powell's athleticism on the field was a thing of beauty, unless you were a defensive back.
His impatient ascent in football was dazzling, especially given that he played just one college football season but still led the nation with 40 receptions. He attracted the attention of the Globetrotters, as did brother Charlie. Bored and almost broke, Powell wrote to the Canadian Football League, where he could play for pay.
Still 19 years old, Powell signed with the Toronto Argonauts in 1957 and split ten games between the Argos and Montreal Alouettes, averaging 19 yards a grab and scoring three touchdowns.
Finally eligible for the NFL draft, held from December 1958 to January 1959, Powell was taken by the Philadelphia Eagles, ostensibly as a wide receiver. He signed a contract laden with incentives for catching passes.
Powell didn't collect a penny of incentive money. The Eagles never played Powell on offense, not a single down. He was relegated to backup safety and kick returner. He made the best of it with three interceptions, two fumble recoveries and finished No. 2 in the NFL in kick returns.
“They screwed him,” recalled John Madden, talking about the Eagles’ treatment of Powell. The future Hall of Fame coach was an Eagles rookie teammate with Powell. He talked about him several times during annual bus rides to the Indianapolis Combine, when the subject inevitably turned to Powell not being in the Hall of Fame.
“They had him returning kicks and punts and playing defense, so there was no way he earned a penny of that incentive money as a receiver,” Madden said. “But he was one hell of an athlete, a big tough guy who could do many things. So he was second in the league in returns and made some big interceptions. He was really something.”
OK, let’s take a break. To this point, we have discussed football only, and I believe there is plenty of evidence to induct Powell into the Hall of Fame.
But there is much more to Powell than football and some of it impacted the history of pro football in a significant way.
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Arthur Louis Powell was a tough man who didn’t suffer fools or condone inequities. He was one of nine siblings in a legendary San Diego sports family, literally the genesis of his athletic greatness.
Powell’s back story began the year he was born in 1937, just before his family moved from Dallas to San Diego.
His father, Elvin, at about 6-3, 220, was insanely athletic. He was a tennis champion, scratch golfer, a standout in the Negro baseball league and toured with Satchel Paige's barnstorming team. As a Black man, Elvin was unable to participate in major sports leagues or events in Texas. So, with the KKK threatening to seize his land, he moved his growing family from Dallas to San Diego. Elvin emphasized that his children should never accept segregation.
Oldest brother Charlie earned 12 letters in five sports at San Diego High. He signed with the St. Louis Browns at 17 years old (and played with the minor league Stockton Ports), before considering an offer from the Harlem Globetrotters. But, ultimately, he signed with the San Francisco 49ers at 19, still the youngest player in NFL history.
As a rookie, Charlie Powell sacked Detroit quarterback Bobby Layne 10 times in one game — then the two went drinking late into the night. Charlie eventually moved full time into his favorite sport, boxing. He became the No. 5-ranked heavyweight boxer, with wins over big-name fighters and a loss to a guy named Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) three fights before Clay beat Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship.
Art’s brothers also included multisport stars Ellsworth and Jerry, meaning he probably faced his toughest competition in his own backyard. So it should have been no surprise when he became one of the most prolific wide receivers in pro football history, after ten years with the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Titans (Jets), Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings.
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Going into the 1960 season at Philadelphia, Powell was set to get a shot at wide receiver and arrived at training camp in great shape at about 200 pounds.
But Powell's relationship with the Eagles turned bad when he refused to play in a 1960 preseason game against the Washington Redskins in Norfolk, Va. It would be the first of four times Powell boycotted a pro football game because of segregation, an action that was frowned upon in most parts of the country.
Before that game, he learned the Eagles' Black players could not stay in the team hotel with their white teammates. Although several teammates initially said they would join him in a boycott, Powell stood alone when the time came. He took heat from the media and fans — and the Eagles cut him.
“We were told colored ball players — that was the language in those days — would not be allowed to stay with the rest of the team in the hotel,” Powell said. “I chose not to play. The other African American ball players said they weren’t going to play either. But they did play … It cost me my job.”
Powell said his action angered not only his white teammates but also Black players.
“They thought you were putting them out in front of a situation they didn’t want to deal with,” Powell said. “So I pretty much kept to myself. I didn’t look for someone to side with me. You just made choices, and in my gut, I thought I made the right choice.”
He was cut from the Eagles and blackballed by the rest of the NFL.
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Davis — Powell: mutual admiration
Spin forward to 2006 and Davis, by then a Hall of Famer himself, fondly recalled his season as a rookie head coach with Powell.
"I wish I could take you all back to 1963," Davis said. "I had one of the greatest players who has ever played this game and he was tough to handle. He was the T.O. of his time…His first year for me he carried us. He caught 16 touchdowns…The difference between Powell and T.O. was that Powell took a stand for a cause."
Even before Davis said that, Powell recalled Davis with fond appreciation in 2004.
"Al Davis knew about my stand on social matters," Powell said. "He knew I was against segregation. He knew I boycotted games. He knew I lived in Canada because as a mixed-race couple it was more comfortable than living in the States. He knew all of it. It wasn't that he didn't care. He cared, understood and agreed. He would later prove that when challenges arose and he stood up and did what was right."
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Powell stands his ground against segregation
The first challenge was an Aug. 23, 1963 preseason game against Powell's former team, renamed the Jets, in Mobile, Alabama's Ladd Memorial Stadium.
"We weren’t going to stay together as a team,” Powell said. “They were going to rope off a section for the Colored fans to sit in, and the Colored fans wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom. So this was my first big challenge with Al Davis, but it turned out it wasn’t a challenge at all.”
After meeting with Powell and teammates Bo Roberson, Clem Daniels and Fred Williamson, Davis moved the game to Oakland.
"Al never put another game in the South during the time I was with the Raiders," Powell said.
In January of 1965 the AFL All-Star game was scheduled for New Orleans.
"We get there and can't get a cab from the airport," said Powell. "We're told we have to call for a Colored cab." There were numerous other issues. A bouncer told one Black player that if he entered the bar he would be shot. Killed.
"There were 22 Black athletes on the two all-star teams," Powell said (some accounts cite only 21). "Before I know it they are all at our hotel and it must be 3 or 4 in the morning. And we have a meeting.”
They decided to leave the city. Powell was mindful of being burned in Philadelphia by teammates who reneged on plans to boycott, leaving him alone in the act.
“I did not want to take a leadership position,” Powell recalled. “After my experiences in Philadelphia I didn’t trust the other players on what they would say later. So to protect myself I wrote up a paper that said everyone in this room is here voluntarily and nobody has been coerced and I made them all sign it.”
And they all left town.
By the time Powell landed in New York, on a layover to Toronto, the game had been moved to Houston, thanks to Davis and several team owners.
Despite his great relationship with Davis, Powell asked to be traded closer to Toronto after the 1966 season, saying he wanted to be near his business interests, which was at least partially true.
Davis didn’t want to trade Powell, but later confided that he thought Art believed Betty would be more comfortable living in her hometown, Toronto. That is where they were wed in 1957, believing mixed-race marriages were illegal in the U.S., which was true in many states. And that is where Betty's family lived.
The Raiders traded Flores and Powell to Buffalo in exchange for quarterback Darryl Lamonica. Art later wished he stayed with the Raiders. But in 1967 he moved with Betty to Toronto and commuted to Buffalo. Lamonica led Oakland to Super Bowl II, a loss to the Green Bay Packers. Powell, whose career realistically ended that 1967 season with a knee injury, agonized watching from the stands the Raiders’ SBII loss.
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Bill Walsh: Powell was “far before his time”
“Art Powell's career is an important chapter in pro football history," said Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, who was a fellow San Jose State alum and an assistant coach with the Raiders in 1966.
“As a player he was far before his time,” Walsh said of Powell. “He would have been a sensation in any era. Art was his own man and fiercely independent. He was not afraid to voice his opinions and to take a stand.”
Hall of Fame Coach Tom Flores knew Powell both as an opposing college cornerback (College of Pacific vs. San Jose State) and as the Raiders quarterback who threw most of the great receiver's pro touchdowns.
"He was hard to cover before the catch and even harder to tackle after. He was a difference-maker,” said Flores, a former Raiders head coach and himself a pioneering minority in pro football. "You must have people speak out and not just speak up, but they have to be active. They have to walk the walk and talk the talk … That's what Powell did."
However, Powell's actions during the historic social upheaval in America negatively impacted his legacy and overshadowed his standing as one of the elite wide receivers in the game. We earlier mentioned his contemporaries who were inducted into the Hall of Fame as if it were a right of passage.
But not Powell.
He was shunned for marrying a white woman in 1957, although it was the start of a marvelous relationship that lasted 58 years until his death in 2015. And, as early as 1960, he was ridiculed for taking a stand against segregated games in the Jim Crow South. Just a few years later athletes were celebrated for taking similar action.
As Walsh and Flores said, Powell was ahead of his time — before John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised gloved fists at the 1968 Summer Olympics and even before the 1967 Cleveland Summit, where several African American sports heroes, including Jim Brown, Bill Russell and a young Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul Jabbar), gathered in support of Muhammad Ali.
Powell himself believed his social stand would hurt his sports legacy, but he did what he thought was right. Before passing in 2015, Powell said his only regret was that he may not have made a difference.
“There was a whole social movement going on at the time and it's way bigger than you," he said. "Art Powell didn't create those situations, and if he had never existed, those situations were still going to happen…The challenges that were before me were social challenges. They were personal and they were important. I made a lot of people angry at the time, but I question if I made an impact.
"I've heard about African American kids playing baseball who don't know who Jackie Robinson is. If that's the case, no one is going to know who Art Powell is."
As we said previously, that is why Art Powell belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His historic accomplishments on the field, as well as off it, should be amplified, celebrated and remembered forever.
Some material was updated from earlier stories in HallofFootball.substack.com. Still to come:
🏈 Odd couples — Plunkett/Manning, Tasker/Mitchell, Craig/Watters
🏈 HOF Selectors: A House Divided?
… and more.