If you read into Chuck Ealey’s football story, it’s a pretty good one.
After winning a state championship in high school, he earned a scholarship at the University of Toledo where he led the Rockets to 35 straight wins over a three-year span – a record that still stands in American college football.
From there, he launched an impressive seven-year career north of the border in the CFL, taking over as Hamilton’s starting quarterback in the fourth game of the season, eventually leading the Ticats to an 11-3 record and an eventual Grey Cup championship.
But while Ealey’s accomplishments on the field are legendary, his story is about so much more.
‘Stone Thrower: The Chuck Ealey Story’ was part of TSN's Engraved on a Nation series back in 2012 and it told the story of how football and racial intolerance clashed some 50 years ago.
One person who knows Ealey's story as well as any is former CFL linebacker Orlando Bowen, who spent time with the Argos and Ticats over his five-year pro football career.
Bowen knew of Ealey quite well from a young age – his accomplishments, the path he took, the racial issues he dealt with – when he played football against his son Damon in high school, and then again in college.
It wasn’t until 2000 when he actually met Ealey, now his father-in-law, for the first time though. Bowen married Ealey’s daughter Sky, and eventually became very close with the former football great.
Through shared experiences not just in football, but in commitment to family and earning stability through business after retirement, Bowen saw Ealey as a mentor.
When it comes to Ealey’s history of racial intolerance, Bowen always understood and respected the former quarterback’s past quite well – in fact, Bowen’s parents lived in the very same period of civil rights as Ealey.
In 2004 though, Bowen experienced first-hand the same kind of racial intolerance as Ealey.
Waiting to meet friends, the linebacker was approached by two undercover police officers and accused of dealing drugs. The officers, who didn’t identify themselves as police, forced Bowen to the ground and beat his head until he was barely even recognizable.
Bowen suffered gashes on his face along with a major concussion, eventually putting an end to his pro football career and forcing him into an early retirement at age 29. He was later acquitted of any wrongdoing months later, while one of the officers was charged. More....
http://www.cfl.ca/article/ealeys-sto...-for-all-of-us
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