Henry Bell (American football)

American football player (born 1936)

Henry Bell is a former American football halfback who played one season in the American Football League (AFL) for the Denver Broncos. He never attended college and played for several military service teams in Hawaii and Kansas before his one year in professional football. One of the original members of the Broncos, he was one of their main backs and played in 10 games while rushing for 238 yards.

Pro Football Archives lists him as being born in 1937 in Georgia, although a 1959 article from The Manhattan Mercury identified him as a native of Hawaii. Several modern sources also list him as having attended Valdosta High School, but The Mercury stated that he went to Boy's High School in Brooklyn, New York. He recalled in an interview in 2018 that he had been offered an athletic scholarship to play for the Kansas State Wildcats, but was unable to attend. Bell then began to serve in the United States Army in 1955 and played football and track and field for several military teams. He later recalled his experience getting signed: "A guy came up to my houseI lived in Redondo Beachand said, 'They're coming out with a new football league. Would you like to play?' I said, 'Yeah!' His name was Dean Griffing." He was also one of eight black players on the original Broncos team. When asked in 2018 about how organized the league was, he said "There wasn't any [organization]. It was, 'There's a football game. Get together and go out there and play.' The money was good! The quarterback was [Frank] Tripucka, and we had a good team, I think." The Broncos played 14 games and went 4–9–1, with Bell appearing in 10 of those games while starting five; he placed second on the team with 43 rush attempts for 238 yards (a 5.5 average), also posting the Broncos' longest run of the season (and the league's fifth longest) with a 68 yard rush. He became limited by a turf toe injury that occurred during a game against the Los Angeles Chargers and was released around December 1. Bell never played professional football again.