Eddie Macon, Bears’ first African-American player, dies at 90

Eddie Macon, the Bears’ first African-American player, died Wednesday at 90 after a short illness.

A second round pick in 1952, Macon attended Pacific, where he was also the school’s first African-American football player. The halfback ran 70 times for 324 yards his two-year career with the Bears, from 1952-53.

Macon left the Bears in 1954 to play in Canada, and returned for one season with the AFL’s Raiders. He worked in the ports of San Francisco and Oakland until eight years ago, according to The Record of Stockton, Calif., where he lived with his wife of 71 years, Jessie.