Raleigh Climon Owens (November 12, 1934 – June 17, 2012) 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 ...

end and halfback from 1957 through 1964. Owens graduated from Santa Monica High School in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, and attended the

College of Idaho The College of Idaho (C of I) is a private liberal arts college in Caldwell, Idaho. Founded in 1891, it is the state's oldest private liberal arts college and has an enrollment of over 1,000 students. The college's alumni include eight Rhode ...

(where his roommate and teammate was Elgin Baylor). He played amateur

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

with the

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-based Buchan Bakers the year after their national championship. Owens then joined the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He had his best years playing for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

, where he was noted for his " Alley Oop" receptions of

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Y. A. Tittle Yelberton Abraham Tittle Jr. (October 24, 1926 – October 8, 2017) was a professional American football quarterback. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, and Baltimore Colts, after spe ...

's passes. The Alley Oop was essentially a jump ball, where Tittle would throw the ball high in the air in the end zone, and Owens would jump up and get it. The tall, long-armed Owens was known for his jumping ability; he once blocked a field goal by jumping up at the cross bar and knocking it down. The next season, "goal tending" was made illegal. Owens's best year by far was 1961, when he gained over 1,000 yards receiving. Owens played four games for the 1961-1962

San Francisco Saints The San Francisco Saints were a traveling amateur basketball team composed of Chinese Americans that was formed in the 1950s and entered in the Amateur Athletic Union. The team was founded by Father Donal F. Forrester, who was serving as pastor a ...

of the American Basketball League. American Basketball League He died on June 17, 2012.

References

History of the Buchan BakersDiscussion of the term "alley oop" with citations of references to Owens
# ttp://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-rc-owens-20120624,0,1695894.story Los Angeles Times: R.C. Owens obituarybr>Quirky Research: Palpably unfair acts
1934 births 2012 deaths Amateur Athletic Union men's basketball players American football wide receivers Baltimore Colts players College of Idaho Coyotes football players College of Idaho Coyotes men's basketball players New York Giants players San Francisco 49ers players San Francisco Saints players Players of American football from Shreveport, Louisiana Players of American football from Santa Monica, California Basketball players from Shreveport, Louisiana Basketball players from California American men's basketball players {{widereceiver-1930s-stub