Charlie Mitchell, Husky Running Back Great, Dies at 85

Mitchell came to the UW with much fanfare after scoring 20 touchdowns in just eight games as a senior for Garfield High in 1958.

While he collected all of those instant scoring runs for the Huskies, he dealt with a series of injuries and a racial practice called stacking. The latter involved a practice in which coaches put all of their African-American running backs at one position rather than letting them start games side by side.

"Probably I was less affected than the other black ballplayers because I was a hometown person, a high school All-American," Mitchell said. "I was concerned with what was happening to all black players, but stacking was throughout college football. It was everywhere. The Oregon schools were worse."

Leaving the UW, he was drafted by the NFL's Chicago Bears as a fourth-round pick and 52nd player overall, as an 18th-rounder by the AFL's Broncos and pursued by the CFL's B.C. Lions, and a bidding war resulted. Yet he went to Denver rather than take the top money offer from the Canadian football franchise.

He played five seasons for the Broncos and one for Buffalo. In his best year in 1964, he rushed 177 times for 590 yards and 5 touchdowns and caught 33 passes for 225 yards and another score.

With football taking a toll on his body, Mitchell, who later would become an academian as the president of Seattle Central Community College and the chancellor of the Seattle Community College system, walked away from football in a manner as intriguing as his long touchdown runs were.

He exited in a fairly straightforward manner, approaching Bills coach Harvey Johnson in training camp to let him know he was immediately retired.

"I just made a promise to myself that I would never be a hanger-on," he said. "We were on the field, the players were exercising, and I walked up to the coach and gave him my helmet."

Mitchell, who played in the 1961 Rose Bowl against Minnesota, is one in a string of great Husky running backs who have passed away in recent years, with his former teammates Junior Coffey and George Fleming among them.

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