Ron Mix

Ron Mix
No. 74, 77
Position: Offensive tackle
Personal information
Date of birth: (1938-03-10) March 10, 1938
Place of birth: Los Angeles, California
Height: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight: 250 lb (113 kg)
Career information
College: USC
NFL Draft: 1960 / Round: 1 / Pick: 10
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
Player stats at NFL.com
Player stats at PFR

Ronald Jack Mix (born March 10, 1938) is a retired American football player.[1] The offensive tackle is a member of the American Football League (AFL) All-Time Team and was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Mix attended the University of Southern California, and upon graduation played right tackle and guard for the AFL's Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers (1960–1969) and the NFL Oakland Raiders (1971& 1972; taxi squad during 1972).

College career

A graduate of the University of Southern California, where he was an All American in 1959, Mix was an original Los Angeles Charger in 1960. Mix was also a member of the Delta Chi Fraternity. He was elected the National Jewish College Athlete of the Year.

Professional football career

Because he had a Juris Doctor in Law degree, Mix was nicknamed "The Intellectual Assassin" for his physical play.[1] Mix was called for a mere two holding penalties in ten years.[1][2]

Mix, who was listed at 6' 5" and 270 pounds, was an early proponent of weightlifting to enhance athletic power. He was years ahead of the curve that soon at lineman and other football players taking up that practice to become better athletes. His lifts included a military press of 300 pounds, a clean and jerk of 325 pounds, and a bench press of 425 pounds, all of the lifts considered to be exceptionally strong for that era of play.

Although the Baltimore Colts picked him number 1 in 1960, he chose to go to the AFL, where he had also been the number 1 draft pick.[1][3][4]

He was a factor in the Chargers' early domination of the AFL's Western Division, and in San Diego helped them win an American Football League Championship in 1963, when they defeated the Boston Patriots 51-10 in the championship game.

Mix was the first white player in the 1965 AFL All-Star game in New Orleans to step forward and join his black team mates in a civil rights boycott. The racist environment of New Orleans caused the black players to say they weren’t playing in a city that denied them the most basic rights (to eat, to get a cab, etc). He made it clear that if the black players were not going to play, neither would he. That caused other white players to join the boycott. The game was then moved to Houston. [5]

He was elected to the AFL All-Star team for eight straight years as a Charger, is a member of the All-time All-AFL Team, and is one of only 20 men who played the entire 10 years of the AFL. He was the first Charger to have his number retired in 1969 after he announced he was quitting football after playing injured that season.[6][7][8] He earned a law degree from the University of San Diego in 1970.[9] He told the Chargers he wanted play again, but they had found a replacement in Gene Ferguson. After Mix asked to be traded to the New York Jets, San Diego traded him to the Oakland Raiders for two high draft picks in 1970 and 1971.[8] The deal was contingent upon Mix unretiring and agreeing to play for Oakland.[10] He played with the Raiders in 1971.[11] Then-Chargers owner Gene Klein, who hated the Raiders, unretired Mix's number.[12]

He was also the general manager of the WFL Portland Storm in 1974.

He was voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. Mix is Jewish, and was also elected a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, being elected to that in 1980.[4][13] He was the second player from the AFL to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Lance Alworth was the first in 1978.

After football

Mix practiced law in San Diego, California with a practice focused on representing retired professional athletes in claims for workers' compensation benefits. Prior to that, he was a civil litigator.

Federal investigators found that Mix, working with former National Basketball Association player Kermit Washington, paid Washington $155,000 over a number of years in exchange for workers' compensation referrals from Washington. Mix sent the money to a charity directed by Washington, and Mix deducted the money on his income taxes as charitable contributions. Despite asserting his belief that the charities were being legitimately operated and being unaware Washington was using the charities for personal gain, Mix pleaded guilty to felony tax fraud in Kansas City, Missouri federal court in May 2016.[14]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Hall of Famers " RON MIX". Profootballhof.com. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ Jewish Sports Stars: Athletic Heroes Past and Present. 2006. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  3. ↑ "San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum " Ron Mix". Sdhoc.com. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  4. 1 2 Jewish sports legends: the International Jewish Hall of Fame. 200. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  5. ↑ http://www.npr.org/2016/08/24/491170157/nba-moves-all-star-game-to-new-orleans-which-had-its-own-controversy-in-1965
  6. ↑ Sullivan, Tim (March 4, 2010). "Retiring a number can be tricky math problem". The San Diego Union Tribune. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Politics Lure Charger's Mix". Schenectady Gazette. December 3, 1969. p. 37. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Wallace, William N. (June 4, 1970). "Chargers Trade Mix To Raiders". The New York Times. p. 56. Retrieved May 14, 2012.(subscription required)
  9. ↑ Wolf, Bob (July 11, 1990). "REMEMBER WHEN : At Offensive Tackle, Mix Was Master". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 14, 2012.
  10. ↑ "New Turf Rattles Pitchers". The Vancouver Sun. June 10, 1970. p. 28. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  11. ↑ Sullivan, George (2000). Any Number Can Play:The Numbers Athletes Wear. Milbrook Press. p. 58. ISBN 0761315578. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
  12. ↑ Canepa, Nick (May 13, 2012). "Chargers have several more numbers they should retire". U-T San Diego. Archived from the original on May 14, 2012.
  13. ↑ Ron Mix Archived April 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ↑ "Kermit Washington accused of using charity for gain". Detroit Free Press. Associated Press. May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.


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