Charles King, an original Bengal who authored the first defensive touchdown in franchise history during the third game of that inaugural 1968 season, passed away last week in Selma, Ala. He was 83.
A native of Canton, Ohio, King grew up in nearby Alliance, and his shared northeast Ohio roots with Bengals founder Paul Brown became a family bond after he retired following the 1969 season. His daughter Rhonda, delivered by a Bengals physician on Christmas Day, 1969 at Cincinnati's Christ Hospital, became the first woman enrolled in the Marvin Lewis Coaching Clinic some three decades later during her career as a youth and high school coach.
"What my dad talked about was the coaching experience," says Rhonda King of her father's memories of his Bengals playing days. "Paul was the last coach to coach him. Just about how much football he learned. When he got to Paul, he had been a pro for two years.
"He felt he knew football. He said, 'I had all these good coaches at Alliance and Purdue.' But playing under Coach Brown, he saw a different aspect of football he never thought he'd break off into."
Brown and his staff took King in the AFL expansion draft from the Bills, and the former two-way star at Purdue went on to start all 14 games at cornerback in 1968. The Bills came to the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium to play the 1-1 Bengals, and King's 32-yard pick-six in the third quarter brought the Bengals back from a 14-13 deficit for good in a 34-23 victory.
The Bills took King in the eighth round of the AFL's 1965 redshirt draft and then took his brother Tony King the next year in that draft's third round. It was in Buffalo in 1967 where they became the first African-American brothers to play together in an NFL or AFL game.
After Charlie King logged his best season in the pros with the Bengals, it took one of their greatest players to get him out of the starting lineup. Rookie Ken Riley, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, took over the job early in the 1969 season.
King went on to have a successful career in business as a salesman and as the owner of an airport transport business. He was also a volunteer for more than 30 years at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
But the bond remained with Cincinnati. Rhonda King still recalls the "beautiful," gold Rolex watch Paul Brown gave her as a high school graduation gift 18 years after that first pick-six, as well as those conversations about coaching.
"That's what he passed on to my brother and son when they talked to them about football," she says.
A memorial service celebrating King's life is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Aubrey Larkin's Lewis Brothers Funeral Home Chapel, 1140 Minter Avenue, Selma, Ala., 36703.
There is also a service to be held in Canton on Sept. 19 with details to be announced.