Elbert Dubenion (February 16, 1933 – December 26, 2019) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

flanker who spent his entire nine-season professional career with the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

of the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...

(AFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the Bluffton Beavers. Dubenion, the longest-tenured member of the team's inaugural roster despite being 27 years old at the start of his professional career, is considered one of the best players in the team's history and was an archetype of the AFL's emphasis on speed and the long bomb, both of which were two of Dubenion's greatest strengths and earned him the nickname "Golden Wheels".

Career

Dubenion was drafted in the fourteenth round of the 1959 NFL draft by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. His relatively old age (26 at the time) and hailing from a smaller college meant that he was never considered a serious prospect, and the Browns released him prior to the start of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. Dubenion was among many AFL players from smaller and less renowned colleges that the league was signing in search of talent that the NFL had overlooked, and the Buffalo Bills signed him as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

. During his

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

season, one of his

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

Johnny Green John Waldo Green (October 10, 1908 – May 15, 1989) was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, conductor and pianist. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his ear ...

, gave Dubenion a backhanded compliment regarding his speed and alleged inability to catch a football, noting that he had "golden wheels." The nickname ''Golden Wheels'' stuck for the remainder of his career. In his rookie season, Dubenion had seven

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s and 752 receiving yards on 42 receptions, averaging 17.9 yards per reception. He rushed 16 times for 94 yards and a touchdown, averaging 5.9 yards per rush. In

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

, facing tighter and deeper coverages, he upped his production as a runner, rushing for 173 yards and a touchdown on just 17 carries, averaging 10.2 yards per rush. He had 461 receiving yards and six touchdowns on 31 receptions, averaging 14.9 yards per reception. In

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

, Dubenion had one of the most sensational seasons of any receiver in pro football history, scoring 10 touchdowns among his 42 receptions for 1,139 yards, while collecting 27.1 yards per reception; he also saw a steep drop in his use in the rushing game, carrying the ball only once for 20 yards. In nine seasons, he totalled 294 receptions for 5,294 yards and 35 TDs for a career average of 18.0 yards per reception, and rushed for 326 yards and three touchdowns on 46 carries, a career average of 7.1 yards per rush. When

Wray Carlton Linwood Wray Carlton (born June 18, 1937) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in both Canada and the United States. He played college football for the Duke Blue Devils. Unable to come to terms with the Ph ...

was released by the Bills on September 2,

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

, it made Dubenion the last player from the Bills' original roster in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Janu ...

to still be with the club. Dubenion ranks seventh all-time in the AFL in receptions and reception yardage. He holds the record for the longest reception in AFL playoff history, a 93-yard touchdown reception from

Daryle Lamonica Daryle Pasquale Lamonica (July 17, 1941 – April 21, 2022) was an American professional football quarterback who played in the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the Oakland Rai ...

against the Boston Patriots in the 1963 Eastern Division playoff. According to

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey ...

, a player must have at least 8 career playoff receptions to qualify for the all-time NFL leaderboard for career yards per reception in the playoffs. Dubenion has exactly 8 receptions for 250 yards in the playoffs for an average of 31.3 yards per reception, more than any other player in the history of the NFL; the closest player to him is Jim Doran, who averaged 27.4 yards per reception, 3.9 fewer than Dubenion. Dubenion was a 1993 inductee of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, and his number 44 is officially in "reduced circulation" on the Bills, meaning although it is not officially retired, the team usually does not allow players who are expected to make the team's regular season roster to wear it. (This has not always been successful; Joe Andreessen unexpectedly made the Bills roster wearing the number 44 and currently wears the number as of 2024.)

Death

Dubenion died December 26, 2019, from complications related to

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

AFL career statistics

Regular season

References

External links