Celebrating Life of Detroit Lion Charlie Sanders (1946-2015)

PHOTO by MD

Former DET Lions (LtoR) Wally Triplett (1st African-

American to play for Lions) and NFL Hall of Famer the late great Lion TE Charlie Sanders.

Charlie Sanders was born on Aug. 25th 1946 in Richlands, NC. He attended the Univiversity of Minnesota to play football and was picked in the third round by the Detroit Lions in 1968.

Sanders played ten years from 1968-1977. His career highlights include; seven Pro Bowl selections, two time first-team All-Pro, selected to the NFL 1970s All-Decade team. He had 336 receptions, 4,817 receiving yards and 31 TDs. Inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2007.

After his retirement Sanders was color analyst for Lions radio broadcast 1983-88 and 1997, an assistant coach 1989-96, a scout 1998-99 and team's assistant director of pro personnel 2000-

2015. He also worked in the team's community relations department.

Charlie Sanders died of cancer on July 2nd 2015. He and his wife Georgianna had ten children.