In his 41 years as a player, coach and general manager in Washington, Mitchell was one of the Black players that helped integrate the team alongside Ernie Davis. And upon retiring, he became the first African American to work in an NFL front office.
But before all of that, Robert Cornelius Mitchell was a multi-sport athlete from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Growing up, he played football, basketball, baseball and ran track. To put in perspective the caliber of athlete he was, it s still difficult to say which of the four he was better at.
Mitchell turned down an offer to play professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals, choosing instead to accept a scholarship and attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he ran track and played football.