Tobin Rote's Late Charge: Championship Season at 35

There have been many great performances by athletes in the twilight of their careers.  Most fans know many of the names, George Foreman, John Stockton, George Blanda and most recently Kurt Warner to name a few. This being the 50th anniversary of the American Football League I would like to bring up a “older” Champion that rarely if ever gets mentioned: Tobin Rote.

Tobin Cornelius Rote was a remarkable champion. In college he led Rice University to the Southwest Conference Championship in 1949. His professional career began in Green  Bay with the Packers in 1950. He was traded to Detroit in 1957.

Rote led the Lions to their last NFL Championship that year. He also played in the CFL for three years. In 1963 the San Diego Chargers of the AFL were searching for leadership after a disastrous 4-10 campaign in 1962. They looked north.

Hall of Famer Sid Gilman, who is known as the father of the modern passing game was then the coach of the Chargers. His previous quarterback, Jack Kemp, had been dispatched to Buffalo after an injury, and heir apparent John Hadl was deemed not ready. Though 35 years old Tobin fit the bill. The Chargers sent two draft choices and an offensive lineman to the Bills for the rights to Rote. The gamble paid off handsomely for the Chargers.

Tobin started all 14 regular season games for the Chargers and led them to an 11-3-0 record. He threw for 2510 yards and had a 59.4% completion average—the highest of his career. In that incredible season the Chargers edged out a newly resurgent Oakland Raider team led by first year coach Al Davis to win the AFL West title, beating the Denver Broncos 58-20. The AFL Championship game against the Boston Patriots was to follow.

On January 5th, 1964 Tobin Rote led the San Diego Chargers to their only World Championship. They destroyed the visiting Patriots by a score of 51-10. Rote threw for two touchdowns, had no interceptions and completed 66 percent of his passes that day to achieve a quarterback rating of 145.3. A perfect quarterback rating in professional football is 158.3. And he did this just 13 days short of his 36th birthday.

Rote was also on the cover of one of the most controversial Sports Illustrated issues of all time. It featured Rote handing off to Paul Lowe and was headlined, “a coming World Series—AFL vs. NFL”. 

It is still argued whether or not the Chargers were the best team in ALL of football that year. We will never know if those Chargers would have beaten the NFL Bears that year, but we do know that Tobin Rote had his best season in a long career at the age of 35.

By Thom Madro