Edwin Donald Macon (March 7, 1927 – April 19, 2017) was a professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

halfback.

Early life

Macon was a track star at Edison High School. He was drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1945, and was stationed for seven months at

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, after the war's conclusion. Upon returning to the United States, he joined the

San Joaquin Delta College San Joaquin Delta College (Delta College) is a public community college in Stockton, California. It was founded in 1935 as Stockton Junior College. The college serves a district area that includes all of San Joaquin County and parts of Alameda, ...

track team, before transferring to

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Macon was convinced by Pacific coach Larry Siemering to join the school's

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

, becoming the first black Tigers player. In three seasons with the Tigers, Macon scored 34 touchdowns, and went 24–8–1.

Professional career

Macon was drafted in the second round (twentieth selection) of the

1952 NFL Draft The 1952 National Football League Draft was held on January 17, 1952, at Hotel Statler in New York. Selections made by New York Yanks were assigned to the new Dallas Texans. This was the sixth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick de ...

by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

and became the first African-American player on the team; he spent two years as a halfback and

return specialist A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

. He was the second African-American to be drafted by the Bears; the first,

George Taliaferro George Taliaferro (January 8, 1927 – October 8, 2018) was a professional American football player who was the first African American drafted by a National Football League (NFL) team. Beginning his football career at Indiana University for the ...

, was drafted by them in 1949, but chose to play in the

All-America Football Conference The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...

. With the Bears, Macon rushed for 324 yards and two touchdowns on 70 attempts while catching 14 passes for 49 yards and two touchdowns. On 22 kick returns, he averaged 30.5 yards per return and 5.9 yards on 24 punt returns. He left the Bears in 1954 to play for the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

. Bears coach and owner

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chic ...

was not pleased about his departure,

blackballing Blackballing is a rejection in a traditional form of secret ballot, where a white ball or ballot constitutes a vote in support and a black ball signifies opposition. The system is typically used where an organization's rules provide that one or t ...

Macon and suing him for $100,000. As a result, the Bears refused to acknowledge Macon being on the team. After being out of football for two years, which he spent as a

longshoreman A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...

, Macon joined the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

in 1957 before leaving in 1959 to resume his longshoreman career, but later joined the

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 Raide ...

of 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. ...

in 1960. With the Raiders, Macon was converted to

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, and was tied for second in the league with nine interceptions, which earned him

All-AFL ''The Sporting News'' published an American Football League All-League Team, often referred to as All-AFL, for each season played by the American Football League (AFL), 1960 through 1969. From 1960 through 1966, the All-League team was selected by ...

honors.

Personal life

Macon and his wife (of 70 years) Jessie, had four daughters, Edna Rice (Bertram), Marilyn Gayles (Percy), Janice Macon and Andrea Terry (McClellan), as well as a son, Edwin Macon Jr. Eddie and Jessie married in 1945 and resided in Stockton, CA. They relocated to the Bay Area before returning to Stockton to live out their life in a senior living residence as of October 2012. Upon retiring, Macon worked for over 40 years as a longshoreman, retiring at the age of 86 years old. He died on April 19, 2017, at the age of 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macon, Eddie 1927 births 2017 deaths American football halfbacks American players of Canadian football American football return specialists American football defensive backs Pacific Tigers football players Chicago Bears players Calgary Stampeders players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Oakland Raiders players Players of American football from Stockton, California Players of Canadian football from Stockton, California United States Army personnel of World War II African-American players of American football United States Army soldiers 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people