Clemon Daniels Jr. (July 9, 1937 – March 23, 2019) was an American professional

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player who was a halfback in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL) and the

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(NFL).

College career

Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher lear ...

, he was voted to All-Conference honors during his sophomore and junior years, and captained the

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team in his senior year. He also completed the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Program at Prairie View A&M, later being a commissioned officer in the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Since July 20 ...

Professional career

Daniels was signed as a

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in 1960 by the AFL's Dallas Texans, who, like other

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

teams recruited players from small and predominantly black colleges, which were mainly ignored by the conservative NFL. He was on the Texans' roster for 14 games in 1960, but saw little playing time behind

Abner Haynes Abner Haynes (born September 19, 1937) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the American Football League (AFL). Early years and integration of major college football in Texas Born in Denton, Texas, Hay ...

. In 1961, he was traded to the AFL's

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

, and spent seven years there. He was an American Football League All-Star in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966. In 1963, Daniels was ''

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'' American Football League Player of the Year, with a 5.1 yards/carry average, gaining 1,099 yards. He was the All-Time leading rusher in the American Football League and was selected to the All-Time All-AFL Team.

Honors

He was voted into Prairie View's Hall of Fame in 1992 and the California Black Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993. He was inducted into the Texas Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Clem 1937 births 2019 deaths People from McKinney, Texas Military personnel from Texas Players of American football from Texas American football running backs American football return specialists Prairie View A&M Panthers football players Dallas Texans (AFL) players Oakland Raiders players San Francisco 49ers players American Football League All-Star players American Football League Most Valuable Players American Football League rushing leaders American Football League All-Time Team American Football League players United States Army officers