{"id":747578,"date":"2026-02-12T18:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747578\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:23:18","slug":"celebrating-the-impact-of-paul-tank-younger-during-black-history-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747578\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Impact of Paul \u2018Tank\u2019 Younger During Black History Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the celebration of Black History Month<\/a>, the Bolts organization is highlighting the impact of former Chargers throughout February.<\/p>\n

Paul “Tank” Younger was a trailblazer in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n

As a running back, he became the first Black player to play in an NFL All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

And as an executive, he made more history with the Chargers in 1975 when he became the league’s first Black Assistant General Manager.<\/p>\n

“Tank was really a pioneer in the Jackie Robinson mold,” said Jack Teele, a former Chargers executive, was quoted as saying in Sam Farmer’s 2001 obituary on Younger in the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. “He was perfectly suited to play such a role. To Tank, racial differences really didn’t exist much; you were either a good guy or a bad guy.”<\/p>\n

Younger, a Louisiana native, played college ball at Grambling State for legendary coach Eddie Robinson.<\/p>\n

He made his first historical footprint in 1949 when he signed with the Rams as an undrafted free agent to become the first NFL player from a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).<\/p>\n

Younger then ran for 3,640 yards and 34 touchdowns over his 10-year career with the Rams and Steelers, making four total Pro Bowl appearances.<\/p>\n

He then spent a decade-plus as an NFL scout and executive before making more history in 1975 when he joined the Bolts front office.<\/p>\n

Younger was the Chargers Assistant General Manager until 1986 and helped the Bolts win four division titles during his time with the front office.<\/p>\n

Dean Spanos, the Chargers Owner and Chairman of the Board, also commented on Younger’s immense impact on the game of football.<\/p>\n

“He was one of the first people we met when we came into the league,” Spanos said in this news article<\/a>. “Tank was somebody that remained a friend throughout the years.<\/p>\n

“He always, always made sure he came over and wished us good luck before the game. He was an inspirational guy, a good guy,” Spanos added.<\/p>\n

Rick Smith, a longtime friend of Younger, was also quoted in Farmer\u2019s obituary<\/a> on Younger.<\/p>\n

“He was a pugnacious and feisty negotiator,” Smith said. “He was a guy who came from nothing and attained a great deal, so those agents could never put anything over on Tank.”<\/p>\n

Younger, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, passed away in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the celebration of Black History Month, the Bolts organization is highlighting the impact of former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[107337,104240,241,7,34,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-747578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-bhm-editorial","9":"tag-black-history-month","10":"tag-chargers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-homepage-cp","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleschargers","17":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116059059902987485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}