September 8, 1963: Stone Johnson -- his real name -- dies as a result of an injury sustained in an exhibition game for the Kansas City Chiefs. He was only 23 years old.
Stone Edward Johnson was born on April 26, 1940 in Dallas. He suffered a back injury as a high school freshman football player that nearly left him unable to walk. "The doctor who operated on my back told me I might not walk again," Johnson told The Dallas Morning News in an interview before the 1960 Olympics in Rome. "One day, I decided I was going to get up and take a step. I did. After a while, I was walking again and then running. And a funny thing about my running: I was a lot faster. Before I was crippled, I couldn't even make the sprint relay team." In the Olympics, he finished 5th in the 200 meters.
He played football and ran track at Grambling State University in Louisiana, and was an all-Southwestern Athletic Conference football player as a junior in 1961. He son left Grambling before playing his senior season in 1962. He returned to Dallas, and regularly spent time that fall with the AFL Texans, who won the league championship that season.
The Texans drafted him in the 14th of 25 rounds, only weeks before team owner Lamar Hunt moved the franchise to Kansas City, because of poor attendance in competition with the NFL's Cowboys. Used as a receiver and returner, Johnson caught his first preseason touchdown pass a week before a game against the Houston Oilers, at Cessna Stadium in Wichita, home of Wichita State University.
On August 30, 1963, Johnson, 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, was blocking on a kickoff return midway through the 1st quarter. He dove into an opposing Houston Oilers lineman and lay motionless on the field. Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson recalled no ambulance being present: "It must have taken 25, 30 minutes to get one there."
It was determined Johnson had fractured his fifth cervical vertebrae, and he underwent surgery. Hunt hired a plane to bring Johnson's parents from Dallas to Wichita. But his condition did not improve. On September 8, the day the Chiefs opened the season, he died. The game was played anyway, and the Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos, 59-7 at Bears Stadium in Denver. (It was renamed Mile High Stadium in 1968.)
The Johnsons took him home by train. Amid racially segregated Dallas, the six pallbearers for his funeral at the Munger Avenue Baptist Church were all members of the Chiefs organization, and included four white men: Head coach Hank Stram, Dawson, receiver Chris Burford and defensive tackle Jerry Mays, along with running back Curtis McClinton, and another product of Dallas' black high schools, running back Abner Haynes.
"What happened to Stone was tremendously tragic," said the Chiefs' quarterback then, Len Dawson, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "He was just getting started." Although he was only on the team's active roster during preseason, his Number 33 was retired.
The Chiefs have had a sad history. In 1965, Mack Lee Hill, essentially drafted to fill the hole left by Johnson's death, died on the operating table during what should have been routine knee surgery. He was only 25.
In 1980, former All-Pro offensive tackle Jim Tyrer, going through business failures, shot and killed his wife, and then killed himself. He was 41. In 1983, running back Joe Delaney, having played 2 All-Pro seasons, drowned in a failed attempt to save 2 drowning boys. He was 24. In 2000, Derrick Thomas, then one of the best linebackers in the game, crashed his car, was paralyzed, and died a few days later of a blood clot, at 33. In 2012, linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend and killed himself. He was later found to be suffering from football-related head trauma.
Stone Johnson remains 1 of 4 NFL players (including AFL players) to have died as a result of an in-game condition, along with Stan Mauldin of the 1948 Chicago Cardinals, Aaron Glenn of the 1960 New York Titans (Jets), and Chuck Hughes of the 1971 Detroit Lions.
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September 8, 1963 was a Sunday. These other AFL games were played:
* The New York Jets lost to the Boston Patriots, 38-14 at Alumni Stadium, on the campus of Boston College, just outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the Houston Oilers, 24-13 at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston.
* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Buffalo Bills, 14-10 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.
The NFL opened its schedule the next weekend. The NBA and the NHL were out of season. These baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Al Downing went the distance for the win. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone hit home runs. For the Tigers, Al Kaline went 1-for-4.
* The New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Frank Robinson did not play. Pete Rose, about to be named National League Rookie of the Year, went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Hank Aaron went 0-for-5, but drove in a run with a groundout.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 6-2 at District of Columbia Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium) in Washington.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Stan Musial, in his last month as an active player, went 0-for-3. Roberto Clement went 2-for-4.
* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 and 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew went 3-for-8 with an RBI over the 2 games.
* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Ernie Banks did not play. The Colt .45s became the Houston Astros in 1965.
* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. (The Angels groundshared with the Dodgers until their stadium in Anaheim opened in 1966.)
* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Orlando Cepeda hit a home run, and Willie Mays went 2-for-4 with a walk.
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