Former Green Bay Packers halfback Elijah Pitts was one of seven players elected to the Black College Football Hall of Fame, Class of 2023, it was announced Thursday (Dec. 8).
Pitts, who played for the Packers from 1961-69 and again in 1971, played collegiately at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. When Pitts was drafted by the Packers in the 13th round in 1961, it all but sent shockwaves through the ballroom in the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, where NFL officials and coaches had gathered for that year's draft.
Pitts was such a sleeper – the term for an unheralded prospect from a small school – that it has been reported that one wag in the room asked: "Is that Philander Smith from Elijah Pitts or Elijah Pitts from Philander Smith?