REMEMBER WHEN : Many of the Highs Were Lowe’s With the Original Chargers
Even the most imaginative script writer couldn’t have dreamed up a fantasy to top Paul Lowe’s debut with the original Chargers 30 years ago.
As an undrafted free agent, Lowe seemingly had little chance to win a job, but he changed that in a matter of seconds. The first time he got his hands on the ball, on the opening kickoff of the Chargers’ first exhibition game in 1960, he ran 105 yards for a touchdown.
The Chargers were based in Los Angeles only for that season, which marked the founding of the American Football League, and the game was played at the Coliseum. Lowe’s theatrics laid the foundation for a 27-7 victory over the New York Titans, forerunners of the Jets.
That first impression helped Lowe stick with the team, yet it only scratched the surface of what he was to accomplish. He went on to become one of the most honored players in Charger history.
Consider that Lowe:
* Led the AFL in rushing in 1965 with a then-record 1,121 yards and was voted the league’s player of the year by The Sporting News and United Press International.
* Tops Chargers career rushing list with 4,963 yards in seven seasons, having fallen short of 5,000 only because he missed the 1962 season with a broken arm.
* Led the team in rushing five times, topping 1,000 yards twice.
* Rushed for 100 yards or more in a game 16 times, hitting a high of 183 against the Denver Broncos in 1963.
* Gained 165 yards against the Houston Oilers in the AFL’s first championship game in 1960.
* Made his longest run from scrimmage, 87 yards for a touchdown against the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs) in 1961.
* Returned a punt 81 yards for a touchdown against the Boston (now New England) Patriots in 1961.
* Inducted into the Chargers’ Hall of Fame in 1979.
Would all of this had happened if Lowe hadn’t gone all the way with the Chargers’ first-ever kickoff?
Lowe, 53, still a San Diego resident, is now warehouse supervisor at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Institution in Otay Mesa.
“Of course, that first kickoff return was a great thrill,” he said. “I broke a couple of tackles and faked a couple of guys out, and I was gone. My father was in the stands, and he had never seen me play football before, so that gave me a great feeling. He said he didn’t think I could run that fast.
“But that didn’t mean I had the team made. Sid (Coach Gillman) was still playing some guys ahead of me. There were Ron Waller, Luther Carr, Charlie Flowers, Royce Womble and Howie Ferguson.
“In a preseason game against Dallas, Waller and I were back on kickoff returns. Waller told me to take the ball wherever it was, like he didn’t want to run a kickoff back. So I went out of my lane, and I fumbled the ball but still went 30 or 40 yards. Sid asked why I went out of my lane. Waller told him the truth, so he cut Waller.”
Even after that, Lowe wasn’t safe. There still were cuts to be made after the final exhibition game against the Broncos.
“I remember talking to Esther, Sid Gillman’s wife, before the game,” Lowe said. “She said, ‘Paul, this game will either make you or break you.’ I knew there was a lot of pressure on me.
“As it turned out, I had a big day against Denver, and from that day on, I never looked back. I kept working harder and harder.”
Lowe was born in Homer, La., but grew up in Los Angeles and attended Centennial High School in Compton, where he was a star in track and basketball as well as football. He played college football at Oregon State, where he also was a hurdler, high jumper and sprint-relay runner in track.
The tryout with the Chargers wasn’t Lowe’s first. In 1959, after being overlooked in the National Football League draft and with the AFL still on the drawing board, he had a free-agent fling with the San Francisco 49ers and came close to making it.
“I don’t know why I wasn’t drafted,” he said. “There are a lot of good athletes out there who never get a chance. But Pappy Waldorf was scouting talent for the 49ers, and I had had so many good days against Cal when he was coaching there that he asked me if I wanted to try out.
“I stuck with the 49ers until the last cut. But then I hurt my ankle, and a rookie can’t afford to get hurt unless he’s a No. 1 or No. 2 draft choice. So they cut me, and I came on home to Los Angeles.”
After that, Lowe applied for two jobs--with the Los Angeles Police Department and with the Carte Blanche credit service, owned by Barron Hilton. He took the latter, working in the mail room and studying computers.
Hilton then became the owner of the new Chargers and hired Frank Leahy, the ex-Notre Dame coach, as his first general manager. Between them, they took a preliminary step in the discovery of Paul Lowe.
“Leahy found out I was working for Carte Blanche and asked me if I would play football in the AFL,” Lowe said. “I said yes. Well, he never got back to me, but Sid Gillman did, and by that time he had become general manager as well as coach (Leahy resigned because of illness).
“I’ll never forget that first training camp. We were at Chapman College, and it seemed like they had a thousand guys trying out. Everybody the Rams had cut in the five years before that was there.”
As tough as it was for Lowe to make the team, he started on opening day and had an outstanding rookie season, gaining 855 yards and averaging a career-high 6.3 per carry.
Because the Chargers played in virtual anonymity at the Coliseum, they moved to San Diego in 1961 and business picked up considerably at Balboa Stadium. They played there until San Diego Stadium opened in 1967.
“I didn’t mind relocating,” Lowe said. “I bought a home in San Diego and got away from all that hustle and bustle in L.A.”
Once established in San Diego, Lowe became a crowd favorite at Balboa Stadium.
“I played to the fans,” he said. “We were so close to them, it was like being on stage. People would talk to us while the games were going on.”
The Chargers were a powerhouse in those early years, winning Western Division championships in five of their first six seasons and the league title in 1963. Their performance in their 51-10 victory over the Patriots in the 1963 championship game was probably their best ever.
“We had a great coach in Gillman,” Lowe said. “He was a master of a coach, a great improvisor. If some other team ran a play against us that he liked, he wasn’t afraid to steal it. He would add a little to it, and it would work.
“We had a lot of offensive weapons, and we had an offensive line that got better every year. Ron Mix at tackle was one of the most intelligent ballplayers I ever saw. He was smarter than a quarterback, plus he had speed.
“The year we won the championship, everybody thought we could have beaten the Bears, who won it in the NFL. We both had great defenses, but we were more explosive on offense and our quarterback, Tobin Rote, was a coach on the field. He could read defenses like a preacher could read the Bible.”
Hall of Famers Gillman and Mix put into words just how good Lowe was.
Gillman, now retired, said, “Paul was the best running back over the 10 years of the AFL. He had speed like Gale Sayers, he could cut and he had a great change of pace.
“We liked to use him on the quarterback toss with Mix in front of him, and he could go outside as well as anybody in football. He didn’t have great hands, so we threw him short stuff he could handle, and he turned a lot of those little passes into big gains.”
Mix, now a San Diego attorney, gave Lowe some of the credit for his own success.
“Paul probably made us as well known as offensive linemen can get,” Mix said. “Guys like him and Keith Lincoln and Lance Alworth made things happen. He was an explosive outside runner.
“On top of being a great football player, he was a pleasant guy, fun to be around, with an impish personality.”
Lowe’s one regret is that he didn’t finish his career with the Chargers. They released him after the 1967 season, and he spent 1968 and 1969 with the Chiefs. He was only a spot player in Kansas City and wound up five yards shy of 5,000, but he bowed out fittingly by winning a Super Bowl ring with the 1969 Chiefs.
“I had 5,000 at one time,” he said, “and then I lost five on a sweep and never carried again.”