Harold Carmichael Gets His Gold Jacket
PHILADELPHIA – It finally happened.
Thirty-seven years after he caught his last pass in the NFL, former Eagles' great wide receiver Harold Carmichael was at last inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday evening.
The four-time Pro Bowl selection, three-time second-team All-Pro, and a member of the NFL 1970s All-Decade team went in as part of the Centennial Class of 2020.
That it took so long for this to happen doesn’t matter.
That Carmichael had to wait an extra year for the enshrinement ceremony in Canton due to the global pandemic doesn’t matter.
Carmichael is officially a member of the Hall of Fame and has the gold jacket to prove it.
He walked on at Southern University and played his way into becoming a seventh-round draft pick of the Eagle, the 161st player taken overall, in 1971.
"What a journey," he said during his acceptance speech. "I wasn't on this journey by myself. God put a lot of people on that highway with me. I was a walk-on at Southern University. The only person that knew me on the campus at that time was the head coach (Robert Smith) and at the end of my freshman year, I was voted Freshman of the Year.
"I was very, very blessed. Now one of the guys that got me ready for the NFL was (fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer) Mel Blount. He pushed me every day in practice."
Harold Carmichael
Philadelphia Eagles
It wasn’t long before Carmichael thanked Eagles fans.
“Eagles Nation, thank you for welcoming a 22-year-old kid from Jacksonville, Florida, and really accepting me as being one of yours,” he said. “Thank you for your support. Thank you for your relentless passion, your energy, your pride. To me, you're the best fans in the world. To the ones here in Canton, the ones back in Philadelphia, and the ones around the world, thank you for sharing this moment with me. We all share this together. Go Birds!"
Interestingly, Carmichael attended the same high school in Jacksonville – William Raines High School – as another former Eagles great and Hall of Famer, Brian Dawkins. Lito Sheppard, who is not in the Hall of Fame, but was one of the top cornerbacks in the organization’s history also attended Raines.
Carmichael thanked his Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, a coach who helped the wide receiver play in his one and only Super Bowl in 1980.
“I hope you're in that next class of inductees,” Carmichael said of Vermeil. “Thank you, coach. You've been awesome. You deserve it. You got a lot of guys here that you coached; we're all pulling for you right now.
"I remember coach Vermeil saying, 'Do your job better than anybody else. Surround yourself with good people, and I think I've done that all through my career in the National Football League.”
At 6-8, Carmichael helped redefine the position of a wide receiver with his height, becoming of the first big-bodied receivers in the NFL.
He and quarterback Ron Jaworski took full advantage. In three seasons, 1978-1980, he and Carmichael connected for 155 receptions, 2,759 yards, and 28 touchdowns.
In 13 years with the Eagles, Carmichael played in 160 games, made 589 catches, which is still an Eagles record for most in a career, 8,978, and 79 touchdowns.
Harold Carmichael
Philadelphia Eagles
“Thank you to my guys that played with me for 14 years in the NFL,” said Carmichael, who was the NFL Man of the Year in 1980. “They helped me not only on the football field, but also in the community, people like Harold Jackson, Ron Jaworski, and Mike Quick.
"A special thanks to Jeffrey Lurie and the Philadelphia Eagles organization for all of your support. After playing there for 13 years, leaving about 12 years, you gave me an opportunity to be around the Philadelphia Eagles football team.
"To my beautiful wife, Bea, for over 42 years we've been together. She loves her family. She's given me all the support over the years. One of the things she'd do every time we'd come back from a game, she would critique my play. 'You did this. You did that. OK, I'm going to hear enough from Coach Vermeil tomorrow.’”
After leaving Philadelphia following the 1993 season, he played two games for the Cowboys in 1984, making only one catch for seven yards before calling it a career.
A Hall of Fame career, that is.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
