.png&width=42&height=42&type=webp)
University of Minnesota Athletics
An Outland-ish Night for Bell
1/13/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 13, 2012
By Michael Carnes
Special to GopherSports.com
Fifty years after being named the nation's outstanding lineman, Bobby Bell finally got to pick up his hardware.
The 1962 Outland Trophy winner from the University of Minnesota received his trophy Thursday at the Outland Trophy Award Dinner, held at the Downtown Doubletree Hotel in Omaha, Neb. He was joined by the 2011 winner of the award, Barrett Jones of the University of Alabama.
For Bell, being able to bring home a trophy is an honor more than a half-century in the making from his days as a standout athlete in the small town of Shelby, N.C.
It was a chance opportunity to play for a major college football power for Bell, who couldn't attend nearby North Carolina because, in the 1950s, the school was segregated.
"One of the coaches down there called (then-Gopher coach Murray) Warmath and said they saw me play in an all-star game and told him that, 'Hey, he could make your team,'" Bell said. "They told coach they needed to give me a scholarship, but he hadn't seen any film of me or anything like that and they were kind of leery about giving me a scholarship without having seen me."
The Minnesota coaching staff worked with a coach in Shelby who could work Bell out, and after receiving positive feedback about his talents, they sent Bell an airplane ticket to come visit the school, and Bell was impressed by what he saw on campus.
"There were 30,000-some students on campus, and I had never seen that many people in my life," Bell said. "I told my dad I wanted to play in a big school, and they ended up giving me the last scholarship they had."
Bell originally came to Minnesota as a quarterback. During his sophomore year, he was moved to offensive tackle and defensive end, positions he had never played before. But he was determined to make the starting roster, so he adapted - and adapted quite well.
"Before the season, they said there wouldn't be a sophomore on the starting roster, and I told my roommate, Bill Munson, 'Man, I'm going to make this team,'" he said. "I fought my way up, and right before the first game the coach said, 'Bell, you'll start' and I started every game."
That season turned out to be a magical one - the Gophers ran the table and won the 1960 national championship. They followed that up with another Big Ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl, and in 1962, Bell was tabbed the nation's outstanding lineman and recipient of the Outland Award. From there, he went on to a Hall of Fame career in the AFL and NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs, moving from the line to linebacker, where he helped anchor an outstanding Chiefs defense that was part of the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967 and, four years later, helped the 17-point underdogs dominate the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
When Bell received his Outland Award in 1962, though, the winner didn't receive the heavy hardware that today's recipients get. From 1946 to 1989, the winner award, presented by the Football Writers
Association of America, received a plaque and a certificate. The trophy winners now receive was first presented in 1990, and in recent years past winners from that early era have been brought back to receive trophies of their own, along with that year's winner.
"They've been holding my trophy for 50 years, and now I get to hold it," Bell joked. "It's exciting. It's an opportunity for the linemen up front to shine. He's the guy in the trenches making the plays so the quarterback and running back can get the glory, and to be the top guy in the country is awesome."
These days, the 71-year-old restaurant owner enjoys retirement and speaking around the country, and he fondly remembers his opportunity to play football at the University of Minnesota.
"I got to be a part of a national championship team and won a couple of Big Ten titles there, so it worked out great for me," he said.
-UM-
