By Anthony Holden
CBS SportsLine Historian

While the AFL battled for respect in the early years, one aspect the league did not lack for was characters. Some of football's wackiest men plied their craft in the AFL, and arguably the leader of the enigmatic pack was fullback Cookie Gilchrist.

Cookie Gilchrist (No. 34) was one of the AFL's early stars. (AP)

"Cookie was just a character, he's difficult to describe," Bills owner Ralph Wilson said recently. "He was smart, but he was hard to control. He gave us three years and he was very instrumental in our success back in those days."

With the Bills struggling to build a running game during their first two years, scout Harvey Johnson went north of the border to buy Gilchrist from the Toronto Argonauts of Canadian Football League.

His first year in Buffalo, 1962, Gilchrist won the AFL rushing crown with 1,096 yards as the Bills improved from 6-8 to 7-6-1. In 1963 he gained 979 yards and scored 12 touchdowns to lift the Bills into a divisional playoff game against Boston, which the Bills lost 26-8.

The team's progress reached its peak in 1964 when Gilchrist gained 981 yards during a 12-2 regular season, then rushed for 122 yards in the AFL title game which the Bills won over San Diego, 20-7.

"Cookie was a leader out there," said Butch Byrd, Gilchrist's teammate during the '64 championship season. "Some say he was a little ahead of his time in his thinking, but when he put on the uniform, he came to play. He was an inspiration. Controversial? Absolutely. But I have high regard for him.

"Jim Brown was the great back during that era, but I have often said that I thought Cookie was every bit as good as Jim Brown. The Buffalo Bills weren't the team that the Cleveland Browns were at that time, but taking nothing away from Jim Brown, man for man, talent for talent, Cookie was right there."

Gilchrist spent only three years in Buffalo because the team's management grew tired of his erratic personality. Coach Lou Saban, who had a celebrated tiff with Gilchrist in November of 1964 and actually cut the player for one day before bringing him back at the behest of his players, traded him to Denver prior to 1965 for running back Billy Joe.

Though the Bills would win the 1965 AFL title, they clearly missed Gilchrist.

"Quite honestly I thought it was a mistake when we traded him," Byrd said. "I think the Bills management at the time thought it was getting rid of a problem, but we got Billy Joe in a trade for Cookie and you could see there was a vast difference, the dynamics just weren't there.

"Cookie did some things that were unconscionable for an athlete. Something inside of him made him think he was being maligned or mistreated and not getting his just due and he couldn't accept that. That was his flaw, but you had to accept that and look at all the pluses, which far outweighed his minuses."

Said Wilson: "He could be an All-Pro today. He and Bronko Nagurski of the Bears were probably the two best fullbacks I ever saw. Cookie weighed about 260 pounds, but he could run like Thurman Thomas."

Added Hall of Fame guard Billy Shaw: "He was probably the best athlete that I have ever played ball with. He had tremendous strength and he was exceptionally quick for a man who weighed 250 pounds."