Chargers’ Success in the 1960s Case of Having the Right Mix

Ron Mix is one of three Charger alumni in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but the highlight of his career occurred in a game in which he never threw a block.

As dominating as Mix was as an eight-time all-star offensive tackle in the American Football League during the ‘60s, he was frustrated by the arrogant attitude of the NFL. As far as the NFL was concerned, anyone connected with the AFL was a second-class citizen.

That all changed on Jan. 12, 1969, when Joe Namath made good on a seemingly ridiculous boast and led the New York Jets to a 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III at Miami.

“That game (Super Bowl III) was my biggest thrill,” said Mix, 52, now an attorney in San Diego. “When the Jets won, it validated the careers of all of us in the AFL. Everybody knew then that the AFL was a major league.

Mix was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, a year after former Charger wide receiver Lance Alworth. The two were the first two AFL players to be so honored. Sid Gillman, the Chargers’ first coach, was voted in in 1983.

“All those years, being from the AFL, I didn’t know if any of us had a chance for the Hall of Fame,” Mix said. “That one game put the two leagues on the same level.”

The seeming superiority of the NFL had been reinforced when the Green Bay Packers of the NFL beat the Kansas City Chiefs (35-10) and the Oakland Raiders (33-14) of the AFL in Super Bowls I and II.

“We heard an awful lot of taunts about NFL superiority,” Mix said. “Not from the NFL players, understand. They were thrilled because we created competition for their services and salaries went up. But NFL management was always rough on us, and we resented this because we knew how good we were. We knew eventually that we were just as good as they were.

“In the first four or five years of our existence, the NFL was in a frame of mind that we would die and go away. We couldn’t compete financially for the top players, so we had trouble establishing ourselves.

“But because we had only eight teams and they had 12 and then 14, we had a numerical advantage in strengthening our teams. Once we began signing our share of players, dividing talent among fewer teams gave us a better distribution of the best talent in football.

“Still, the public conception before Super Bowl III was that we were inferior.”

In the NFL draft of 1960, Mix, an All-American at USC, was the first-round choice of the Colts. In the AFL, which did not list its draftees by rounds, he was picked by the Boston Patriots. Shortly after the draft, the Patriots traded his rights to the Chargers, who were then based in Los Angeles.

“A representative of the Chargers called and wanted to know if I was interested in playing in the AFL,” Mix said. “I told him, ‘No, if I have to go back East, I would rather play in the NFL.

“The man asked if I might change my mind if the Chargers acquired my rights. In those days, AFL clubs would cooperate with each other to try to get guys to come into the league.

“Since I was born in East Los Angeles and went to Hawthorne High School and USC, this could be ideal. Nevertheless, I wanted to play in Baltimore if the terms were right.”

Despite Mix’s avowed preference, the Chargers made the deal for his rights. Then they beat the odds by outbidding the Colts for his services.

“The Colts offered me $8,000 a year and a $1,000 bonus,” Mix said. “The Chargers made an offer of $12,000 and a $5,000 bonus, but I told the Colts that if they’d give me $10,000 and $2,000, I’d sign with them.

“They said no. The man I dealt with said, ‘That league (the AFL) will be lucky to last a year, and then you’ll be with us at a salary that won’t upset our salary schedule.

“I decided there was too big a spread between the two offers. I also figured that if the Colts were right and I was with the Chargers only one year, I’d be in the NFL and could negotiate again. So I signed with the Chargers, and as far as whether the AFL would last, I don’t think I ever thought about it.”

Having maneuvered his way home to start his pro career, Mix was not overjoyed when the Chargers moved to San Diego after one season.

“That was a disappointment,” he said. “One reason I signed in the AFL was to remain in Los Angeles. I remember thinking I should have gone to Baltimore.”

As it turned out, Mix’s reaction to the move didn’t last long.

“I changed my mind in about three minutes,” he said. “San Diego is such a beautiful place to live, and when I drove to town, somebody recognized me. In L.A., I was anonymous.

“I guess all you have to know about my feelings toward San Diego is that I still live here. The whole thing turned out perfectly for me.”

Mix noted that while some AFL clubs had to cut financial corners to survive, the Chargers had an affluent owner in Barron Hilton.

“There were a few ownership changes, but no clubs went bankrupt,” Mix said. “And with Barron, the Chargers always went first class. We stayed in quality hotels, we had great training-camp facilities, fine practice fields. He did everything right.”

Also, Mix found it convenient in San Diego to combine law school with football. He received his law degree from the University of San Diego in 1970, after playing with the Chargers from 1960 through 1969 and before coming back for the 1971 and 1972 seasons--the latter on the taxi squad--with the Raiders.

“I went four years to night school at USD,” he said. “I didn’t intend to go into law at first. I just wanted to get the education. I remember reading Esquire, and it said the best education to give yourself was a legal education. That helped me decide on it.

“I’m primarily into personal injury and business litigation. About 25% of my practice concerns workmen’s compensation for retired athletes.”

Mix also is author of three stories for Sports Illustrated.

“I’m not a writer of great quality,” Mix said. “I just felt strongly on certain subjects, so I wrote articles about them.”

Between his careers as a football player and a lawyer, Mix took a job in 1974 as general manager of the Portland Storm of the short-lived World Football League.

“I decided to try it for one year,” he said. “I had a great salary, and if I had gotten paid, it would have been even better.”

Mix’s impressive combination of mental and physical ability led Joe Madro, the Chargers’ first offensive line coach, to call him “the intellectual assassin.”

At 6 feet 4 and 250 pounds, Mix he was one of the strongest lineman in the game and one of the smartest. He was called for holding only twice in his 10 seasons as a Charger.

Of his rivalry with Deacon Jones of the Rams, who became a Hall of Famer in 1980, Mix said:

“The first time we played, Deacon clearly got the better of me,” Mix said.

“We played the Rams again the following year, and I did very well. In fact, I got a letter from Monte Clark, who coached in the NFL for a long time, and he said it was the best game he had ever seen against Deacon.”

Mix’s favorite character among his old Charger teammates was Ernie Ladd, a 6-9 defensive tackle whose playing weight was about 350 pounds.

“Ernie’s appetite was legendary,” Mix said. “In training camp, he would eat 18 eggs over-easy, a pound of bacon, a pound of ham and a loaf of bread and drink a half-gallon of milk.

“He was in town about six months ago, and I was so stupid that I invited him out to breakfast. He looks like he weighs 450 now, and I could see why. The tab for two was $36.”

Among his fellow offensive lineman in the old AFL days, Mix singled out Sam De Luca for special mention.

“He’s my personal hero,” Mix said. “He retired after a couple of years and bought two McDonald’s franchises in New York. He hasn’t worked since.”

Mix didn’t aspire to a pro football career from childhood.

“I was a late developer,” he said. “In my senior year in high school, I was 6-2 and 168. I didn’t have a college scholarship, but I got elected for the high school all-star game, and I kind of blossomed. From just that one game, I got a scholarship to USC.

“At SC, though, they worked us so hard and the practices were so grueling that they took the fun out of it. Don Clark was the coach, and I wished I had the courage to quit. I hated football.

“Every day, we were driven to exhaustion. At the end of practice, we wondered if we were going to die. I couldn’t wait till football was over.”

Mix built himself up to 250 pounds and became the best offensive tackle in the country.

“I wasn’t a natural athlete, but I worked twice as hard as anybody else,” he said. “I started lifting weights when nobody else did, when I was a sophomore.

“The prevailing thought at that time was that weightlifting would tie up your muscles. The McKeever twins (Mike and Marlin) and I were the only ones on the squad lifting weights, and I guess we were the three best players. We were all All-Americans.”

As tough a taskmaster as Gillman was, Mix found life in the pros more tolerable.

“Sid worked us hard enough to get us ready, but never drove us to exhaustion,” Mix said. “He was called the father of offensive football and rightly so. He was a brilliant coach, and we always felt that having him gave us an advantage.

“He ran such a tight ship that nobody wanted to get him angry. One night in training camp at USD, Jacque McKinnon and I stayed out after curfew. The only way we could reach our apartment was to go past his, and he was sitting there with his window open, studying film. We got down on our stomachs and did the marine crawl.

“We managed to pull it off, but he’ll probably fine us when he reads this.”

Mix was equally adept at blocking. In the 1963 championship game against the Patriots, in which the Chargers won the only title in their history, he threw three blocks on a 58-yard touchdown run by Paul Lowe.

Gillman, 78, puts Mix on a level all his own.

“He was the best offensive lineman I’ve ever seen,” Gillman said. “There was nothing he couldn’t do.

“When we picked a tackle, we hoped he could do three things: be our lead blocker on the toss to a running back; give pass protection, and fire out and occupy the defensive man in his area.

“He did all these things so well that he dominated everybody. And he was a terrific guy along with it.”

Told of Gillman’s praise, Mix smiled and said, “Who am I to argue with a Hall of Fame coach?”