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Gene Frenette: Raines' Harold Carmichael stood tall as a Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver
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- Gene Frenette: Raines' Harold Carmichael stood tall as a Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver
Editor's Note: Harold Carmichael is No. 10 on the Times-Union's Top 100 list of athletes from the Jacksonville area.
Harold Carmichael was a football afterthought coming out of Raines High School. No colleges offered him a scholarship except to play basketball.
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But the 6-foot-6 center, who grew to 6-8 and eventually became the tallest receiver in NFL history with the Philadelphia Eagles , was hellbent on giving football a shot.
So much so, Carmichael jumped on a train to Baton Rouge with Raines fullback Blyden Gieger, who had a scholarship to Southern University, to start preseason practice without even being accepted into the school.
It was a bold decision, this 18-year-old kid who was more impactful as a basketball player showing up unannounced at Southern, thinking he could somehow make the football team.
"I bullied my way into Southern," Carmichael said in a phone interview from his New Jersey home. "Nobody knew who I was. I jumped on the train with Gieger and one of the quarterbacks, Willie Jones from Picayune, Mississippi, was there to pick us up, but my name was never called.
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"[Jones] said he couldn't just leave me there. We got to campus and when they gave out dorm room keys, my name wasn't on the list. I was trying to figure out how I was going to find money to get back to Jacksonville."
Luckily, Southern head coach Robert Edgar Smith remembered Carmichael from a recruiting visit at Raines to go see Gieger. On a whim, he let Carmichael walk on to the Jaguars and room with Gieger.
Unlike a long line of accomplished Raines players, higher-drafted Southern teammates or colleagues in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Carmichael — as part of a 20-member HOF Centennial Class in 2020 — never achieved any kind of stardom until his third year in the NFL when he led the league in catches (67) and yards (1,116), making first-team, All-Pro.
Carmichael before then was just a raw prospect, taken on a seventh-round flyer in the 1971 draft by the Eagles, the 20th receiver selected. Only one receiver chosen above him, Mel Gray, ever made a Pro Bowl.
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At Raines, where he played receiver as a junior and quarterback as a senior, Carmichael freely admits he was an average player at best.
"I did nothing in high school football," said Carmichael. "I think I threw one touchdown pass my senior year. That would almost put me at the bottom of the list."
But when he got to Southern, his confidence gradually soared as a receiver because Carmichael went up against future Hall of Fame cornerback Mel Blount, a future Pittsburgh Steeler , every day in practice for three years.
"We had some battles," said Carmichael. "I was just learning how to play the game and he helped by being tough on me."
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It turned out Carmichael was a classic late bloomer. He didn't truly blossom until he got to football's highest level.
Basketball takes back seat
Many of Carmichael's childhood friends on Lobelia Street in his Magnolia Gardens neighborhood, less than two blocks from Raines, found it a bit odd that he didn't accept any scholarship offers in basketball.
At the time, his reputation as a hoopster was more highly regarded and it wasn't even close. Carmichael still played basketball his last two years at Southern and was the team's top rebounder. He was also considered a quality third baseman-first baseman at Raines, good enough to earn a tryout with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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"Harold played better on the basketball court than in football," said Earnest Butler Jr., a former Raines receiver and lifelong friend of Carmichael. "He wasn't a really good quarterback, but he could get the job done."
What Carmichael did have was an ability to self-scout and understand that while he still liked basketball, his passion for football became greater near the end of his time at Raines.
He lacked the skill set of the Vikings' first great receiver, the late Ken Burrough, who was a year ahead of him, but Carmichael correctly judged that he'd have a better future in football than basketball.
"I wanted to play football," said Carmichael. "I make a joke about it, but if I had ever learned how to dribble, I would have never played football. I was fine when I got the ball in the paint, but if I had to dribble over three times, I was done."
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A couple things worked in his favor after landing at Southern. After being fifth on the depth chart, the Jaguars endured attrition through injury, position switches and grade issues, which allowed Carmichael to elevate into a starting role midway through his freshman season.
His mother, who often only came home on weekends because of her job as a cook at a Ponte Vedra Beach hotel, had scraped up enough money to send Harold to make his first tuition payment.
"By that time, the quarterback [Jones] who picked me up at the train station had replaced the starter," said Carmichael. "He used to call me Stokely [after Stokely Carmichael, the late civil rights activist] and told me to just get open.
"It took a long time to get my first touchdown. One play he put a ball up to me that I caught one-handed and I got drilled by the safety, but I fell backward into the end zone. After that touchdown, I was pretty much the starter."
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Carmichael didn't put up dazzling numbers in his college career (89 catches, 1,601 yards, 16 TDs), but his catch radius with a lanky 6-foot-8 frame intrigued the Eagles enough to take a chance on him.
What a prescient call that turned out to be.
Flying with the Eagles
No break was bigger for Carmichael in his NFL career than Philadelphia trading Harold Jackson before the '73 season, which made him a starter for the first time.
When he got the phone call informing him of the trade at his Jacksonville home, he ran around the house screaming in delight, a rare outburst for the mild-mannered giant.
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Sure enough, the departure of Jackson completely changed the trajectory of Carmichael's career. That '73 season, he became a legitimate deep threat with Roman Gabriel at quarterback, continuing a consecutive pass-catching streak that reached a record 127 games in 1980.
"By my third year, my receivers coach with the Eagles, Boyd Dowler [former Green Bay Packers receiver], told me you can't run routes like guys who are 5-foot-9, talking about Jackson and Ben Hawkins.
"My stride was deceptive. I'd get up on guys, little things like coming off the ball a certain way. I went deeper than other guys with my stride. Basketball taught me body position, to put my body between the defensive back and the ball."
By the end of the 1970s, Harold became one of the most feared receivers in the game, which only elevated when the Eagles acquired Ron Jaworski as their quarterback prior to the 1977 season.
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Over his first five years in Philadelphia, Jaworski threw for 13,963 yards in a tougher passing era and 41 of his 102 touchdown passes went to Carmichael. From 1973-83, the 225-pound receiver led the NFL in catches, yards and touchdowns.
"Harold was like a Moses Malone power forward when you looked at him," Jaworski once said. "Not only was Harold tall, but his arms were so long.
"His wingspan and catch radius were absolutely incredible. What quarterback wouldn't want to have a guy like that to throw to?"
Though he finished his career playing two games for the Dallas Cowboys in 1984, his career with the Eagles forever endeared Carmichael to fans in the City of Brotherly Love.
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To think, none of it might have ever happened without Carmichael taking a gamble at age 18 to get on that train for an 18-hour ride to Baton Rouge.
Butler, who still travels with his wife Veeta to visit Harold and wife Bea in New Jersey and will be in Philadelphia for the November 3 Jaguars-Eagles Sunday Night Football matchup, still marvels at how Carmichael went from a basketball prospect to an NFL Hall of Famer.
"I had the same choice as Harold," said Butler, one of about a dozen friends from Jacksonville who attended Carmichael's HOF induction. "The football coach from Southern called me and told me to bring a pair of cleats and come with Harold, but I stayed home. I didn't want to leave Jacksonville.
"It turned out to be a good deal for Harold. I was so proud of him after that first year [at Southern]. It's amazing, everything worked out for him. Like I told him, 'it was meant to be.' "
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Harold Carmichael was a standout center on the basketball court, but he never stood taller than when the NFL discovered his greatest skill was catching passes.
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com : (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
10. HAROLD CARMICHAEL/Football
Age: 74
High School:Northwestern, Raines
College: Southern
Accomplishments: A four-time Pro Bowl selection at wide receiver, he played for 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and one with the Dallas Cowboys before entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Centennial Slate of 2020. . . . Drafted by Philadelphia in the seventh round (161st overall) in 1971, he finished his pro career with 590 receptions for 8,985 yards and 79 touchdowns and still leads the Eagles all-time in all three categories. … Inducted into the Eagles' Honor Roll in 1987 and named second-team NFL All-Decade for the 1970s. … Was the NFL's sixth all-time leading receiver upon retirement. … Had a then-NFL record 127 consecutive games with at least one catch, which ended against Dallas in a 35-27 loss on Dec. 21, 1980. … Still 101st in NFL career receptions and 75th in receiving yardage list entering 2024. … In seven postseason games, caught 29 passes for 465 yards and six TDs. … Was Philadelphia's leading receiver eight times with three 1,000-yard seasons. … After two years as a backup, led the NFL in receptions (67) and yards (1,116) in 1973 to make his first Pro Bowl. … Caught a career-high 12 passes for 187 yards in 27-24 win over St. Louis Cardinals on Oct. 14, 1973. … In 1978, he caught 55 passes for 1,072 yards (19.5-yard average) and eight TDs for a Pro Bowl trip, and earned his third Pro Bowl honor following 1979 season with 52 catches for 872 yards and NFC-leading 11 touchdowns. … Helped lead Eagles to their first NFC Championship in 1980 with 48 catches for 815 yards and nine TDs, and caught five passes for 83 yards in 27-10 Super Bowl XV loss to Oakland Raiders. … Earned NFL Man of the Year honors in 1980 and went to a fourth Pro Bowl. … … Topped 1,000 yards one more time in 1981 with 61 catches for 1,028 yards and six TDs. … After 73 total catches in next two seasons, left the Eagles following 1983 when Mike Quick became the primary receiving target and signed a one-year contract with Dallas, where he played only two games in 1984. … Went to Southern University as a walk-on, earning a starting job midway through his freshman year and finishing with 89 career catches for 1,601 yards and 16 touchdowns. … Helped Southern to a 9-2 record in 1969, catching a 79-yard TD pass in a 21-17 win over Grambling, the Jaguars' only victory over their SWAC rival over a 12-year stretch … At Raines, had more scholarship offers for basketball and also lettered in baseball as a first baseman. … Threw one TD pass in high school, but never had a scoring reception.
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Deserving because: He went from a total football unknown in high school and college (never making the All-SWAC team), then used his 6-foot-8 frame to become one of the greatest receivers in NFL history. A classic example of a late bloomer who flourished as a pro because of a system that took advantage of his skills, he paved the way for modern-day tall receivers like Calvin Johnson and Mike Evans .
Carmichael, onwaiting 31 years to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: "Each year I didn't get in, I'd say, 'Well, I guess I wasn't good enough.' A lot of [receivers] that went in ahead of me in the Hall, they had better numbers because they threw the ball more after I got out. I was like sixth in the NFL in receptions when I retired, but my highest catches in one year was 67. They're almost doubling that now because I only played 14 games until 1978. That put a little blanket over my accomplishments."
Where he is now: Carmichael lives in Glassboro, N.J. with his wife of 46 years, Bea, and they have one adult son, Lee. He still does some ambassador work on behalf of the Eagles and was employed by the NFL franchise from 1998-2015 as their development director.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Harold Carmichael left hoops behind, found stardom as NFL's tallest receiver
