Lance Alworth was an extraordinary football player who changed the running game of football, as we know it today.

He was born August 30, 1940, in Houston, Texas. His full name was Lance Dwight Alworth. While Alworth was a child, he and his family moved to Brookhaven, Mississippi, where Alworth attended the local high school. moved. In high school Alworth was an excellent athlete; he competed in basketball, baseball, football, and track. When he graduated from high school, the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates offered Alworth a chance to play major league baseball. However, Alworth’s dad talked him into going to college to further his education. Alworth received a full football scholarship to the University of Arkansas.

Alworth was very successful in college football; he played in the Cotton, Sugar, Gator, and Hula Bowls and the College All- Star Game in Chicago. Alworth was named best in both the Cotton Bowl of 1961 and in the Hula bowl of 1962.

Lance Alworth’s professional football career started in 1962. The Oakland Raiders drafted him in the second round of the drafting process, so that they could form a trade with the head coach of the San Diego Chargers, Sid Gillman. The San Francisco 49ers tried to draft Lance from the San Diego Chargers, but Lance was persuaded to stay with the Chargers.

One day when the Chargers were practicing, one of their fullbacks named Charlie was watching Lance practice. He was very impressed with how Lance moved and how he looked. He said that with Lance’s slender upper torso and muscled legs that Lance looked like a pure breed. He gave Lance the nickname Bambi. Lance kept this nickname all the way through his professional career.

Alworth’s career was going well until he sustained a torn muscle injury while horsing around in practice in 1962. The Chargers were scared that he may not have been strong enough to sustain the hits and pressure of being in a professional football league. But Lance held up to his name. He came back in the 1963 season as a flanker and did quite well. Even though he did occasionally get hurt, Lance only missed six regular season games and the title game of 1964. He even played with fractures on both hands in 1966, without telling anybody about it until mid-season.

He was named the All-AFL offensive player for seven straight years. During these seven years of Alworth’s professional career height, Alworth caught at least one pass in every game he played and a total of 542 passes for 10,266 passing yards and scored eighty- four touchdowns. He also won the crown for most yards gained three times: in 1966, 1968, and in 1969.

In 1970, Alworth’s career plummeted. His ninety- six game streak ended. At the end of that season, Alworth was traded to the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys head coach Tom Landry decided to use him as a blocker. Alworth didn’t like the position as a blocker; yet he played for them anyway. He missed the enjoyment of scoring touchdowns and running with the football. During the 1972 Super Bowl, Alworth caught the first touchdown against the Miami Dolphins. Even though the Dallas Cowboys won the game, and Alworth received a Super Bowl ring, he decided to retire from professional football at the end of the 1972 season.

After Alworth retired from professional football, he returned to San Diego with his wife of eleven years and their four children. He continued his business career. By this time he had gone bankrupt and was looking for a new investment. He drove past a group of storage buildings and decided to open some in San Diego. When Alworth got back to San Diego, he had trouble getting money from the banks because the banks didn’t believe that his idea would work. So, Alworth contacted one of his former friends from the San Diego Chargers, Glenn Gregory. Gregory gave him enough money to break even. After living very poor for years, Alworth finally opened the storage buildings in 1976. He is now the owner of twenty- six storage buildings all over the state of California.

Lance Alworth   lived the life of a football legend. He had an excellent football career with many rewards and even got the honor of being the first original AFL player to elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.