Cookie Gilchrist RIP

http://www.comcast.net/articles/sports-nfl/20110110/Obit-Cookie.Gilchrist/

Lookie, lookie.

 

Played for Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Toronto in the CFL before joining the Bills. Huge fan favourite in Toronto

 

There goes Cookie. Guess Jack Kemp needed a running back.

 

He grew up in a town right next to where I was born. I'd heard of his legend; always wondered how he got his nickname. Sounds like he was a hell of a player.

 

In Paul Zimmerman's book "Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football," the 1970s edition, there's an anecdote about Gilchrist with the Bills at training camp. The other players are getting in just before curfew, and encounter Gilchrist in the men's room. He's looking at himself in the mirror, tying his tie and preparing to go out for the evening.

 

Cookie stories are legendary and awesome. He was supposed to get a new Cadillac when he signed with the Dolphins, but instead they have him Joe Robbie's used one. He got pissed and told Ed Pope at the Herald.

 

Great story in the SI vault on Cookie by Bud Shrake. From 1964. Here's a link ....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1076725/index.htm

 

Good stuff from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun:

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/columnists/steve_simmons/2011/01/10/16833851.html

 

Nice:

He played running back, fullback, middle linebacker, cornerback, nose tackle, punted, kicked field goals depending on the game and the circumstance, the kind of football player we don’t see anymore in an age of specialization. “There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do,” said Rountree, although Gilchrist disagreed.

Cookie once said he would have played quarterback too if he could have found a way to throw the ball to himself

 

Jack Kemp called Cookie the greatest football player he'd ever seen. Kemp was admittedly biased perhaps, but he did play in the NFL with the Frank Gifford-era NYG, so he saw the best that league had to offer, and was not a man prone to making rash statements.

I remember Cookie doing some placekicking for the Bills in 1962 or 1963, before Pete Gogolak showed up for the 1964 season.

Not sure if he is on the Bills ring of honor at Wilson Stadium; maybe he didn't play long enough in Buffalo to merit that honor. But he certainly was good enough; the only better Bills' back was O.J. Simpson, and possibly Thurman Thomas.