One of the best-known, best-loved, and most admired NFL “STARS” of the 1960s is no longer with us, having “moved on” at age 77 from worries about this world. He was only a player in the NFL for seven years, and they were all with his beloved Chicago Bears.
He had the nickname, “The Kansas Comet,” when he came into the league, because that was how he was known as a Kansas Jayhawk, where he set many records and thrilled many fans.
He still holds the record for being the youngest Professional Football Hall of Fame Inductee (first ballot, 1977, age 34) and is the only player to make the NFL 75th Year All-Anniversary Team at two different positions—kick returner and running back. Twice he had almost 350 all-purpose yards in single games, an almost unheard of feat then and now!
GALE EUGENE SAYERS, 6’ 1” tall and a muscular 200 lbs., born in 1943 in Wichita, Kansas, only played 68 or so games during his 7-year NFL career due to injuries that forced his retirement, but he rushed for a career record of 5.0 yards per carry, which has only been surpassed by Jim Brown, Mercury Morris, Jamaal Charles, and Marion Motley—pretty lofty company!
As a little evidence of Sayers’s achievements, take a look at this these facts. He scored 22 touchdowns his rookie season, six in just one game! He had 2,272 all-purpose yards, threw a pass for a TD, and ran for a punt return touchdown and a kick-off return touchdown. Coach Halas said that his six-touchdown game was the most amazing thing he had ever witnessed, and he saw “a lot” of football!
He played in 14 games in 1965, his rookie season, and was voted the NFL Rookie of the Year! His first five seasons as a Bear gained him four Pro-Bowl appearances, when they actually played that game to win, and he was voted 1st Team All-Pro each of those first years!
Most folks who followed this amazing running back or who have studied his career, know this statement he made when asked how he was able to escape seemingly “made” tackles and break from traffic for exceptional runs—“Just give me 18 inches of daylight. That is all I need!”
Better than his statistics, to me, is that this star player was even better known as “the very essence of a team player” and always ready to compliment a teammate or good play by an opposing player. Until dementia finally caught up with him, Gale Sayers was always the kind, generous, good person—a real man and good example for all.
1968 saw Sayers suffer a major knee injury and then “re-hab and re-invent his running and style” and come back in 1969 with bruising power and toughness to again lead the NFL in rushing! However, another bad knee injury in 1970 limited him to just four more games before he was forced to retire.
His spirit and generosity and “genuineness” will be forever missed, and I hope that if you never saw him play that you will find a video and watch this smooth, fluid, slick runner make others look as if they are standing still or “grabbing at air.”
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