In the pre-Super Bowl era, the NFL Draft was merely a primitive exercise where sleepers from small schools would try their luck. Elijah Pitts was one of them, who came from a historically black college called Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. In fact, it is said that when his name was called in the 13th round of the 1961 NFL Draft by the Packers, there were audible gasps. One of them rhetorically questioned, “Is that Philander Smith from Elijah Pitts or Elijah Pitts from Philander Smith?”
But far from what one would assume, entering the NFL didn’t mean he had made it. At least, not for Pitts personally. He grew up in the late 30s and 40s, which was a rough time for black athletes. As a son of a sharecropper in a town where the high school was so small that it could not afford a football team, he attended one 12 miles away in Conway, Ark. Segregation among high school athletes and football competitions wasn’t an outlawed practice then, and remained so until 1970. That naturally spilled over into the pro league for decades to come by. “I think during all that stuff, he couldn’t sleep in the same hotel room as his teammates a lot of the time,” his grandson Shea revealed.
Pitts wasn’t just a backup to names like Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor; he was a special-teams beast. His decade-long career stats (1,788 rush yds, 28 rush TDs, 35 total TDs in 134 games) only tell part of his football glory. After hanging up his cleats, Pitts embarked on a remarkable 25-year coaching odyssey. It was his 16 seasons in Buffalo, peaking as an assistant coach who led the Bills into four Super Bowl appearances, that truly outshone his legacy. And so, this week, on the hallowed turf of Canton, Ohio, the same Elijah Pitts, who passed away 27 years ago, finally gets what was due.
“Former NFL running back and longtime Buffalo Bills assistant coach Elijah Pitts will receive the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s annual Award of Excellence nearly 27 years after his passing,” 7 News WKBW wrote on X.
Former NFL running back and longtime Buffalo Bills assistant coach Elijah Pitts will receive the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s annual Award of Excellence nearly 27 years after his passing. https://t.co/fB8e0tP56s
— 7 News WKBW (@WKBW) June 26, 2025
His son, Ron, when speaking about the recognition his father will posthumously receive, said, “You needed to find out as a coach what made everyone tick, what made those guys go?… I think that‘s where he had some special relationships with (running) backs.” Perhaps one of the strongest relationships he had was with Bills legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Thurman Thomas. “Thurman wasn’t just a guy he coached, I think, in a lot of ways, he looked at Thurman as another son… They had that kind of special relationship,” he added.
Pitts’ family will accept the award on Pitts’ behalf, who died at age 60 due to cancer, but if you’d ask Ron, there is someone else who deserves the award as much as he does: his mother, and Elijah Pitts’ wife, Ruth. “I can’t give her enough credit because without her, dad would be the first to tell you those championships don’t happen,” Ron added.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame award was a long time coming. For 16 years, Pitts may have walked the sidelines in Orchard Park, but truth be told, it is what he single-handedly endured to reach that point in his career that makes all the difference… What it single-handedly meant for him to pave the road for future generations of black NFL players.
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