TO THE CHAPTER INVISIBLE
The Robert J. Pickens 1943–2018 U.S. Olympian, NFL Player, Businessman
By Aaron Williams
1966 pro football drafts. Selected in the third round by the Bears, Pickens accepted George Halas’s offer to play professional football for his hometown team. Pickens played three seasons for the Bears along side teammates and future pro football Hall of Famers Gale Sayers (Mu 1963) and Dick Butkus. After a disastrous 1-13 season with the Bears in 1969, Pickens left the NFL and played one year in the Canadian Foot- ball League's (CFL) Edmonton Eskimos before retired from professional football. In his only playing for the Edmonton Eskimos, he began his transition to his post-playing career by working as an Assistant Human Resources Director for Chicago-based advertising company, Foote, Cone and Belding. In 1970, he began a long 18-year career with Sears, Roebuck and Co. In 1988, Pickens left Sears to become the owner and managing director of Rainbow Clas- sics, Inc., a Hong Kong-based trading company dealing in toys and sundry items. On weekends between 1976 and 1989, he held a longtime “second job” as a game official for the Big 10 Football Conference including officiating the Rose Bowl and Liberty Bowl. In 2000, Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed him as a Chicago Park District commis- sioner. His name appears twice at Chicago’s Soldier Field. On a plaque outside the stadium in recognition of his position as a parks commissioner and on the recog- nition wall inside the stadium recogniz- ing all Chicago Bears players. Pickens received many other honors. Preceded in death by his parents and his first wife Dorris, Brother Pickens is survived by his second wife Judith J. Pickens, sister Rose Cannon, daughter Tori Pickens, son Todd Pickens, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
high school coach Elias George. Coach George encouraged him to try out for the United States Olympic Wrestling team during the World’s Fair held in New York City in 1964 where he placed second in the National Senior AAU Freestyle Championship. He also placed second in the AAU Greco Roman Cham- pionships. Later in 1964, he placed third in the Final Olympic Trials in Freestyle at New York which placed him with the best in the
B orn on the south side of Chicago, IL on February 2, 1943, Robert James “Bob” Pickens was the eldest of three siblings to Sarah Stampley and Nathaniel Pickens. Diagnosed with Lou Gehring’s Disease (ALS) in 2017, Brother Pickens entered the Chapter Invisible on April 12, 2018 at his home in Sandy Springs, GA. He grew up in Evanston, IL where as a young grade school student, Pickens struggled with academics even kept his eighth-grade report card which boasted a “D” grade for physical education. Through perseverance and determination as well as the support from his, Pickens transitioned from an overweight, insecure child into an exemplary student-athlete at Evanston Township High School. After graduating from Evanston Township in 1962, Pickens entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a football scholarship. While a student in Madison, Pickens became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi ® as a 1963 initiate of the Beta Omicron Chapter. After returning home from school, Pickens discussed his future with his
United States Training Camp. At the Final Cuts for the Olympic Team at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, he placed second in the Freestyle, which qualified him to be an alternate on the 1964 Olympic Team and he won the Championship in Greco-Roman which automatically won him a berth on the 1964 Olympic Team. At the 1964 Summer Olympic Games held in Tokyo, Japan, he, along with Bobby Douglas and Charles Tribble, were the first African Americans selected to represent the United States in Greco- Roman Wrestling. He placed sixth in the competition. Pickens’ next stop after the Olympic Games was the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE. He played football under College Football Hall of Fame coach Bob Devaney and as an offen- sive lineman, he achieved Big Eight All-Conference in 1966. While at Nebraska, Brother Pickens served as Polemarch of the Eta of Kappa Alpha Psi ® . He graduated in 1966 with a B.S. in Business Administration. Both the American Football League's (AFL) Kansas City Chiefs and the National Football League's (NFL) Chicago Bears drafted Pickens in the
Publishing achievement for more than 100 years
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