Playing college ball at the University of North Texas, Abner Haynes chose to stay in his home state and signed with the Dallas Texans of the AFL rather than the Pittsburgh Steelers, who selected him in the 5^th Round in 1960.  Haynes was the first breakout star of the new league, winning their inaugural Rushing Title while being named the AP and UPI MVP.  Haynes, who would also lead the league in Rushing Touchdowns, would do so again in the next two seasons and would accrue over 1,700 All-Purpose Yards in all of his first three seasons, the last of which was an AFL Championship.

Haynes was never that dominant again, but he would have two more 1,400-yard seasons in All-Purpose Yards with the now-named Kansas City Chiefs.  He finished his career with the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, and New York Jets, where he won a Super Bowl Ring.  Haynes would record 12,065 All-Purpose Yards over his eight-year career.

Cookie Gilchrist had a bizarre road to the pro football in the United States, and dare we say, had he never crossed the path of Paul Brown, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, he could have been a household name in the 1960s.

Gilchrist signed(what had to be an illegal) contract with the Cleveland Browns when he was still in high school.  The Browns reneged, and he would forego college to play in an amateur league in Canada before he was old enough to play in the Canadian Football League.  He played there for five years, winning a Grey Cup with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and in 1961 he would finally play pro in the United States when he traveled around Lake Ontario to play for the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League.

Gilchrist was an absolute phenom in his first three seasons in the AFL, where he would win the Rushing Title in 1962 and 1964 and led the league in Rushing Touchdowns in all three years.  Both the AP and UPI named him the MVP, and in 1964 he rushed the Bills into an AFL Championship.  After '64, he joined the Denver Broncos for two seasons (1965 & 1967), where he again finished first in rushing touchdowns in '65.  He played one final year in Miami before retiring for good in 1968.

Any story on Gilchrist has to mention that he was an early civil rights leader, and he led a successful boycott of having the AFL All-Star Game in New Orleans, where segregation still occurred.  He also refused induction into the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame, citing racist policies.

The only thing better than Cookie on the field was Cookie showing his character off of it.

Riley Matheson arrived in Cleveland with little (really no) fanfare to join the Rams in 1939 after going undrafted from Texas-El Paso.  Playing at both Offensive Lineman, Matheson broke out in 1942, earning his first First Team All-Pro, while also capturing that honor in 1944 and 1945.  Granted, this happened during World War II, when the league was depleted, but the NFL Champion in ’45 was out to prove he was there to stay.

The Rams relocated to Los Angeles, but he remained a First Team All-Pro, selected to his fourth and fifth in 1946 and 1947.  He left the Rams to join the San Francisco 49ers of the then-AAFC and finished his career with two years in the Canadian Football League with the Calgary Stampeders.

From San Diego State, La’Roi Glover took a longer path to NFL stardom.  He was a 5^th-round pick in the Oakland Raiders draft, but they cut him a year later, and the New Orleans Saints picked him up.  In New Orleans, he became a star, and in 2000 he would be named a First Team All-Pro, NFL Alumni Defensive Lineman of the Year, and the NFC Defensive Player of the Year.  The ferocious pass-rusher had 17.5 Sacks would also lead the league.  

Glover began a six-year Pro Bowl run that extended into his time with the Dallas Cowboys, with whom he signed in 2002.  Glover would be named to the Second Team All-2000s roster.  He retired with 83.5 Sacks over his career.