USC football legend Ron Mix is arguably the greatest offensive lineman in the school’s rich history. Ron Mix barely allowed any sacks — he says the number is on one hand — in a decade-long pro football career. He is right there alongside Ron Yary and Anthony Munoz as the Trojans’ finest offensive lineman ever. Yet, he didn’t begin his pro football career in the NFL. He went to the AFL.
After Mix’s final USC football season in 1959, the AFL began its existence in its inaugural 1960 season. If Mix had graduated from USC one year earlier, there would have been no AFL draft to compete with the NFL draft. As it was, the Los Angeles Chargers took Mix with their first pick in the first AFL draft. The Baltimore Colts picked Mix with their first selection in the 1960 NFL draft. Mix had a choice. He recalled the calculations he had to make:
“The NFL thought the AFL would just be here and gone. I know I was the number one draft choice of the Baltimore Colts and the number one pick in the AFL also, and the Colts offered me now. So I was the 10th player chosen in the NFL draft. In theory, a lot of people thought I was the 10th-best player in the entire country. They (the Colts) offered me a $1,000 signing bonus and a one-year contract, non-guaranteed at $7,500.
“I know that sounds like the kind of money that you just give on tips, but actually, it was more money than the average American was earning. I told (then-Colts owner) Carroll Rosenbloom that the Chargers had offered me a two-year guaranteed contract, $12,000 a year, and a $5,000 signing bonus. I said I’d rather play for the Colts.”
Ron Mix wanted Rosenbloom and the Colts to increase their offer. If they had matched the Chargers, Mix would have headed to Baltimore. Rosenbloom wouldn’t budge. Mix went to the Bolts and the AFL, where he won a championship a few years later in 1963.
Mix made the right choice, the Colts the wrong one.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC’s greatest offensive lineman rejected his NFL draft selection
Reporting by Matt Zemek, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
