Jack Kemp turned a career as a pro quarterback for the Buffalo Bills into a successfull political career. He served as a Congressman for western New York for nine terms and was appointed Housing Secretary in the first Bush administration. Those of you old enough to do so might also remember that Kemp ran as the Vice Presidential candidate on Bob Dole’s unsuccessful 1996 Presidential ticket.
Kemp led Buffalo to the 1964 and 1965 AFL Championships, and won the league’s most valuable player award in 1965. He co-founded the AFL Players Association in 1964 and was elected president of the union for five terms. When he retired from football in 1969, Kemp had enough support in blue-collar Buffalo and its suburbs to win an open congressional seat.
In 11 seasons, he sustained a dozen concussions, two broken ankles and a crushed hand — which Kemp insisted a doctor permanently set in a passing position so that he could continue to play.
“Pro football gave me a good perspective,” he was quoted as saying. “When I entered the political arena, I had already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded, and hung in effigy.”
In January, Kemp announced that he had been diagnosed with an unspecified, but aggressive, type of cancer that had already spread to several vital organs. He passed away Saturday evening in his Bethesda, MA home.
Kelly,
Love the football stories :) From one die hard football luvin’ chick to another!!
i think you mean Bethesda, MD
RIP.
Very few pro athletes have his class in today’s era of chest-pumping, T.O.-like antics, and egos of those who forget it’s not about the individual.
Hope his last days were peaceful and painfree.