Cookie Gilchrist Carlton Chester " Cookie " Gilchrist ( May 25 , 1935 – January 10 , 2011 ) was a gridiron football player in the American Football League and Canadian Football League . Career . A star player at Har - Brack High School ( Natrona Heights , Pa ) , in 1953 he led the team to the W . P . I . A . L . co - championship with Donora . As a junior , he was talked into signing a professional football contract with the NFL ' s Cleveland Browns by Paul Brown . The signing was against NFL rules and likely illegal , and when Brown reneged on his promise that Gilchrist would make the team , Gilchrist left training camp at Hiram College , in Hiram , Ohio , and went to Canada to play . There , in the Ontario Rugby Football Union ( ORFU ) , he received the Jim Shanks ( Team MVP ) Trophy for the Sarnia Imperials in 1954 , and the Kitchener - Waterloo Dutchmen ' s Team MVP Award in 1955 . In 1956 , he joined the Canadian Football League ( CFL ) with the Hamilton Tiger - Cats , helping lead them to a 1957 Grey Cup victory . He spent one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders , rushing for 1 , 254 yards . He then was traded to the Toronto Argonauts for Tex Schwierer , and played three years in Toronto . In his six years in the CFL , Gilchrist was a divisional All - Star at running back five consecutive years from 1956 to 1960 ( there were no All - Canadians selected in those years ) and was also an Eastern All - Star at linebacker in 1960 . Additionally , in 1960 he was runner up for the CFL ' s Most Outstanding Player Award . In his CFL career , Gilchrist recorded 4 , 911 rushing yards , 1 , 068 receiving yards and 12 interceptions . Gilchrist then joined the roster of the Buffalo Bills of the fledgling American Football League . Incidentally , Gilchrist was Buffalo ' s backup plan : they had actually drafted Ernie Davis to be the team ' s franchise running back in 1962 . Davis instead chose the NFL , but died of leukemia before ever playing a down of professional football . The Bills instead signed Gilchrist as a free agent . While with Buffalo , Gilchrist played fullback and kicked , though he insisted he could have played both ways . He was the first 1 , 000 - yard American Football League rusher , with 1 , 096 yards in a 14 - game schedule in 1962 . That year he set the all - time AFL record for touchdowns with 13 , and he earned AFL MVP honors . Gilchrist rushed for a professional football record 243 yards and five touchdowns in a single game against the New York Jets in 1963 . Though he was with the Bills for only three years ( 1962 – 1964 ) , he remains the team ' s fifth - leading rusher all - time , and led the league in scoring in each of his three years as a Bill . Gilchrist ran for 122 yards in the Bills ' 1964 American Football League championship defeat of the San Diego Chargers , 20 - 7 . His 4 . 5 yard / rush average is second as a Bill only to O . J . Simpson . In an early civil rights victory for black athletes , Gilchrist led a successful boycott of New Orleans as the site of the 1965 American Football League All - Star game . He is the only athlete to turn down being enshrined into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Museum , because of what he described as racism and exploitation by management . Gilchrist frequently was at odds with team management . He told a reporter from the " London Free Press " that most of the problems he encountered were a result of his standing up for principles at a time when black athletes were expected to remain silent . Gilchrist also played for the Denver Broncos in 1965 and 1967 , and for the Miami Dolphins in 1966 . He was an American Football League All - Star in 1962 , 1963 , 1964 and 1965 , making him one of only a few professional football players who made their league ' s All - Star team for 10 consecutive years ( six in the CFL , and four in the AFL ) . Gilchrist was selected as the fullback of the All - Time American Football League Team . After football . Gilchrist had numerous feuds with the people he worked with during his football career . He refused entry into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame on account that he did not believe he was paid well enough for his service . He also refused to accept enshrinement on the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame because he wanted payment for appearing ; Van Miller eventually convinced Gilchrist to change his mind , but Gilchrist was not inducted prior to his death . Gilchrist was posthumously inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 . In an article in " The Buffalo News " on March 18 , 2007 , Gilchrist , then 71 , announced that he was being treated for throat cancer . At the time , he lived in Natrona Heights , Pennsylvania . On January 10 , 2011 , Gilchrist died at an assisted living facility in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . He was posthumously diagnosed with stage four chronic traumatic encephalopathy , which may explain , in part , some of his behavioural difficulties . Gilchrist was aware of the possibility that he had the disease when writing his autobiography , " The Cookie That Did Not Crumble " , along with Chris Garbarino .