Kansas City, MO - Former Chiefs linebacker Pellom McDaniels, who after playing professional football went on to become a college professor, has died at the age of 52 in Atlanta.
McDaniels was a member of the tough KC Chiefs defense of the 90's. After retiring from football, McDaniels earned both his Masters and Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta.
McDaniels returned to Kansas City to teach history at UMKC as an assistant professor.
He then joined the Emory faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies and the associate curator of African American collections for the university’s Rose Library, becoming full-time curator in 2018, according to John Dixon, with ArrowheadPride.com
As reported in the Kansas City Star, McDaniels and his wife launched two charities while playing with the Chiefs - the Arts for Smarts Foundation and the Fish Out of Water Writing Club.
He held a patent for inventing a method for lubricating and protecting the oral cavity.
McDaniels was also an author of several books and served on the boards of the National World War I Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, both in Kansas City, Missouri.