1965 Houston Oilers Yearbook & Insert Poster

Both Lowe and Little lost three years to their careers, Lowe out of football after being cut by the 49ers and one to injury and Little did not begin his pro career until he was 25. Add to that Lowe shared carries with Keith Lincoln which may have made it harder for defenses to key on him and the Chargers OL may have been superior to that of Denver.

The thing that attracted me to the Chagers and away from the Rams in 1960 was Paul Lowe, he was electric and a joy to watch, and the Rams had Ollie Matson and Jon Arnett at the time.

Little was not inducted until 2010, so for years he was not considered HOF caliber but if you add up his total numbers 12200 APYD in 9 seasons and compare those numbers with other inductees, Doak Walker, Frank Gifford, Paul Hornung, Gale Sayers and Earl Campbell, and others, the voters had no choice other than to induct him, plus he owned multiple car dealerships in three states and had a law degree from Denver U.

I would disagree with you on Little’s greatness, in my opinion any player that has an 80 yd run from scrimmage, catches td passes for 72 and 74 yds, returns punts 72 and 67 yds for tds and has and 89 Yd kick off return and averages nearly 1400 APYD in 9 NFL seasons under their belt, is a great player.

If Paul Lowe had not missed those three season, all during the start and shortly after and he’d stayed healthy, who knows?he quite reasonably would have 4500 more APYD and 30 more touchdowns and a bust in Canton.

Erik,
I didn’t think Little was an explosive back and the threat Lowe was although I only watched him a few times.

From what I saw of him I never thought he was in the same class as Paul Lowe, until I looked at his numbers, which by any measure are most impressive and Hall of Fame worthy. Little’s desire, toughness and durability were second to none.

On one of Todds blogs, months ago I wrote “To me Paul Lowe was as fine a back who I ever saw play.” He may not have the jump out at you career numbers of some enough to sway HOF voters, although he did have yard td run from scrimmage and gaudy per carry averages. The one thing he did have, was jump out at you ability, that if not for the AFL his talent would have been lost and as a youth becoming aware of football for the first time football for me would have never been the same then or as exciting.