Do a Google search for “Who is the Eagles’ first Black quarterback,” or “List of Eagles Black quarterbacks,” and you’ll find every name over the last 45 years besides John Walton’s.
To Walton, known as “Johnnie” in most circles, that’s totally fine considering he knows his place in Eagles lore — even if Google does not. And while his story is one of scratching, clawing, and persevering in a league and an environment that at the time didn’t give much consideration to the Black quarterback, Walton readily says he’s fortunate to have been a part of a franchise that has been an NFL leader in giving Black QBs an opportunity.
» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts takes pride in carrying the torch as the next in the Philadelphia Eagles’ legacy of Black quarterbacks.
His memories even come complete with entering for an injured Ron Jaworski and being instrumental in a road win over the rival Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football during the 1979 season.
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“I threw a pass to my homeboy [wide receiver] Charlie Smith and we go up 14-7,” Walton recalled. “I also lead us downfield again and we get a field goal to go up 17-7 right before halftime. I was only in for about 10-15 minutes but in that span we go up 10 and end up winning the game by 10 points [31-21].”
Walton spent four of his seven seasons in the NFL in Philadelphia. That win over the Cowboys would equate to just one of 15 appearances for the Birds over that span.
His career in football was a notable one, however, as evidenced earlier this month by his induction into the Black College Football Hall of Fame. Walton was an all-conference QB at Elizabeth City State University, a historically Black university in his home state of North Carolina. He went on to a journeyman professional career that found him as an MVP of the short-lived Continental Football League in 1969 when he led Indianapolis Capitols to the championship, and as a backup to Roman Gabriel, after being signed by the Los Angeles Rams that same year.
Still, Walton says trying to break in as an NFL starter wasn’t an easy task back then. He said settling for second-best at times just felt like the norm.
“It was very difficult, [but] I had always been taught, though ... always give the best you can and God would take care the rest of it,” Walton said. “You know playing behind a guy like Roman, one of the super players in the league at the time, I learned a lot, but I also competed. I feel that my mentality of always coming in and trying to beat out the best guy in a time when it was just assumed you weren’t, based on the position of quarterback, was a challenge in itself. I was always up for proving people wrong.”
‘I needed that game’
It’s that mentality Walton says that put him on then-Eagles coach Dick Vermeil’s radar. Vermeil, who remembered Walton during his time as an assistant with the Rams, offered Walton another shot in the NFL when he got his first shot at being a head coach with the Eagles.
While the playing time left much to be desired under Vermeil, Walton already knew that might be the case going in. It would have made headlines in those days for Vermeil, in his first year as an NFL head coach, to put in Walton, a Black QB with very few appearances under center. Vermeil also had brought in Jaworski in 1977. But what he did give Walton was an opportunity in the NFL with a team on the rise.
The year after Walton left, the Eagles made their first trip to the Super Bowl, facing the Raiders in Super Bowl XV. The year before, that 1979 season, the Eagles with Walton made it to the NFC divisional round, coming up short in a road loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Admittedly beleaguered from playing as the Birds’ perennial No. 2, and with no serious options on other NFL franchises, Walton decided to retire from the NFL after the 1979 season at age 32.
He went on to coach at Elizabeth City in 1980-82, was coaxed to back to the playing field with the USFL and was among its leading passers in 1983-84. He eventyally resumed his role as Elizabeth City head coach in 1989-90, then in 1991 served as offensive coordinator for the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks of the World League of American Football. Their head coach? Roman Gabriel.
» READ MORE: Dick Vermeil’s Hall of Fame coaching career was fueled by a fire that nearly burned him
It was that 1979 Cowboys game that convinced Walton he could make it in the NFL in a big-time game. Given those chances were scarce, it was this Monday night memory he says will always stand out.
“I just remember having so many emotions that season,” Walton said. “I needed that game. It proved that I could do it. I could come in as a Black quarterback and help lead a team to a win. All of the emotions are gone then for me because I felt like I helped the team. We ended up making the playoffs in that year and I contributed to our success. It felt good.”
» READ MORE: Russell Wilson rejected a trade to the Eagles? If so, here’s what it really tells us. | Mike Sielski
‘I call him Mr. Hurts’
It’s been more than 40 years since Walton retired from the NFL, but he keeps a close eye on the Eagles. Ask him, and he’ll tell you that in this moment few things give him more pride than watching Jalen Hurts lead the Eagles offense on Sundays. And while much of it is largely due to Hurts’ success on the field, Walton recognizes the scrutiny he’s had to overcome to be considered one of the NFL’s best.
“I call him Mr. Hurts,” Walton said. “I call him that because I respect him in that manner. He’s a kid who they doubted and questioned and said all these things about when he first got here and to see the awesome athlete and role model he’s become is inspiring. He didn’t let the negativity get to him, or at least he never showed it. He came in as highly underrated but proved everyone wrong. How can you not respect a guy like that?”
It has been well documented that Hurts arrives from a long lineage of Eagles Black QBs. In fact, no other franchise in the NFL has given as many starts to Black quarterbacks as the Eagles.
Walton, the Eagles’ first Black quarterback, isn’t mentioned in the same regard as Hurts or Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, Rodney Peete, and Randall Cunningham.
Walton doesn’t care. He knows Eagles fans from that era knew who he was. And the fact that Black QBs after him were able to make an impression on the NFL — in an Eagles uniform — brings an immense amount of pride.
Pride, and validation.
» READ MORE: Eagles’ DeVonta Smith earned admiration for being ‘all work.’ Just ask those who played softball with him.
“I’ll never forget, we were at home playing Chicago, and Ron [Jaworski] wasn’t playing that well,” Walton recalled. “The crowd starting chanting, ‘We want Walton! We want Walton!’ It changed how I thought about my place in this franchise and in the NFL. It meant the world to me that those fans knew that I could step in and play.
“Since then some awesome Black players have come behind me, you know. I think Philadelphia was ready to accept the change in mindset. At the end of the day, everybody wants to win. They don’t care what color you are, which is what makes it all work, you know? And then when you have these guys like McNabb and Hurts playing the way they played, Randall, all of them. Those boys showed up and showed out. They put the Black QB on the map in Philly and throughout the NFL.”
Walton’s life has come full circle, leaving Elizabeth City to pursue what amounted to a 15-year professional football career before returning home to teach and work today at age 75 as a member of the City Council. This chapter of his life is viewed very differently than his football career. In this version, Walton has taken on the role of public servant, giving back to a community he says offered him so much.
“When God gives you assignments, I don’t care where it is or what it is, you need to fulfill that assignment,” Walton said. “A key commandment is being in service to your fellow man, and that’s what I’m here to do. That’s what politics gives you the opportunity to do. At its core, it’s about making change, and for me this is all about taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves. Looking out for them and being an advocate and a changemaker for my community.”
As far as being a football pioneer?
“I’m just so elated that, you know, after 50 years, I’m being recognized,” Walton said in the wake of his Black College Football Hall of Fame induction. “Every time I talk about it, I kind of get emotional. It’s awesome to know all of the work I put in during an era when football wasn’t kind to the Black quarterback paid off. We’ve come a long way, and I’m just happy to have a place in all of it.”
