Ealey’s story

Former University of Toledo quarterback Chuck Ealey’s name has become synonymous with the midnight blue and gold.

In three years as Toledo’s starting signal caller, Ealey led the Rockets to a 35-0 record. The Mid-American Conference Player of the Year also won three Tangerine Bowls and was a Heisman Trophy finalist during his time at UT.

Former Rocket Tom Duncan was a standout defensive back and teammate of Ealey’s. A sophomore when Ealey arrived on campus in 1968, Duncan had no idea what this quarterback from small-town Portsmouth would end up doing when the two first crossed paths.

When Ealey arrived in Toledo, Duncan really had no idea who this new teammate was. And he really didn’t care.

“Chuck, when he hit the campus, it wasn’t a big deal like ‘oh man, Chuck Ealey is here,’” Duncan said. “He had to earn his way.”

In those days, for freshmen to earn respect — and playing time — they first had to spend time as tackling dummies for the varsity squad. At the time, freshmen were not eligible to play until their sophomore season.

While it took a little while for Ealey to earn the starting quarterback position, it certainly was a shorter process than the one that landed the eventual Heisman Trophy finalist in Toledo in the first place.

Ealey finished his time at Portsmouth’s Notre Dame High School with a perfect 27-0 record as a starting quarterback. In the modern era of college athletics, that kind of performance would make a signal caller a top-ranked recruit on any program’s board.

But for the top programs at the time, Ealey’s skin color meant more to them than his resume. When programs did come calling, they envisioned Ealey as a defensive back or at wide receiver, not at the helm of the offense.

The best shot it seemed Ealey would have at playing QB was an offer from legendary college coach Bo Schembechler. Then at Miami of Ohio, Schembechler extended a chance at third-string quarterback and a partial scholarship to Ealey.

Ealey refused. Then he heard from a man named Frank Lauterbur, Toledo’s head coach, who said he had an offer of his own to extend.

“He just said ‘ok we will give you a shot at quarterback and we’ll give you a full scholarship.’” Ealey said. “The scholarship at Miami was two-thirds of a full scholarship and one-third of what you call ‘hardship,’ because we couldn’t work.

“It was technically a full scholarship with a little nuance to it, but it still wasn’t sounding as good as when Frank said they’d give me a full scholarship and a chance to play starting quarterback.”

Ealey took over in his second year and the rest is history. While racism swirled throughout the country, he and his teammates saw only jersey numbers and helmets as they continued to rack up victories.

As Ealey’s days in the Glass City drew to a close, however, the National Football League began to poke around. And racism once again returned to the equation.

The National Football League consisted of 26 teams at that time. In 1972, the NFL Draft was 15-rounds long, meaning plenty of opportunities for a team to take a shot on an undefeated quarterback from Ohio.

But Ealey knew well beforehand that his chances were slim. When scouts showed up in Toledo to see him, they were more interested in his athleticism then his skill set under center.

“You just had to look at the NFL,” he said. “The National Football League didn’t have any black quarterbacks and they weren’t thinking [quarterback] when they come down and asked you to come and run a 40-yard dash. Nobody asked Tom Brady to run a 40-yard dash, so you kind of know.

“Who asks a quarterback to run a 40-yard dash? You don’t run. After four years of college it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that one out.”

Ealey refused to change positions just to please the scouts. If the NFL didn’t want him as a quarterback, they weren’t going to get him at all.

With the encouragement of his agent, Ealey wrote a letter to all 26 teams prior to the ’72 Draft, making it clear that picking him as anything but a quarterback would simply be a waste of a selection. The night of the draft, Ealey and his agent waited and watched as the first several rounds slid by.

15 rounds came and went and Ealey’s name was not called. After the draft, he received calls from a few organizations still interested in bringing him in as a defensive back, but Ealey maintained his position on the matter.

He was a quarterback. If the NFL didn’t see that, it wasn’t his problem.

“[Chuck was] not going to push the issue,” Duncan said. “He knew the situation; everybody knew the situation in the NFL. Maybe there were one or two black quarterbacks in the entire NFL back when he was a senior.

“He kind of knew the score, so he didn’t run it into the ground and take an attitude towards it. It was easier for him to switch gears.”

Switching gears for Ealey meant switching countries. The former Toledo star headed north to join the Canadian Football League as a member of the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

Ealey became the starting quarterback four games into his rookie season. He finally lost a football game ­— a 25-23 defeat at the hands of the Montreal Allouettes — but he also won the 1972 Grey Cup, Canada’s version of the Super Bowl.

Ealey was the first African-American quarterback to win the Cup and he earned MVP honors and the CFL Rookie of the Year award in the process. After playing for two more teams over a seven-year career, the former Rocket retired to the business world. He and his wife Sherri had three children and they still call Canada home.

“All I wanted to do was get my degree and use football as the vehicle to get there,” Ealey said. “The rest I could do on my own. I know today that decision was perfect because I probably made googobs more money in the business world with what I chose to do than I would have playing five or six years in the professional league at that time and then being done.”

There were bumps along the road, but for Ealey there are no regrets. The NFL was never his ultimate goal and the fact that it wasn’t in the cards doesn’t bother him.

Ealey had a plan. He always did.

“Chuck has always been one of these guys that have a plan,” Duncan said. “He doesn’t go and show it, but it unveils as his life goes on.

“Skill-wise he was good, but his mentality towards winning and his ability to make big plays at the right time really set him apart.”