*The sports world has lost yet another legend. Gale Sayers, the Chicago Bears Hall of Fame halfback, passed away on September 22nd at age 77.
Although a definitive cause of death has not been given, in 2017, Sayers’ wife revealed that he had been diagnosed with dementia in 2013, and that it was likely caused by his football career.
Sayers, who played football at the University of Kansas, was drafted fourth overall in the 1965 NFL draft, by the Chicago Bears and fifth overall by the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League. He decided to play for the Bears. Although his career was shortened by knee injuries, and he only played professionally from 1965-1971, it was productive and impactful enough to land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, at age 34, the youngest player ever inducted into the Hall.
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As a rookie, Sayers scored 22 touchdowns, an NFL record, as well as gained 2,272 NFL rookie setting all-purpose yards.
He was the NFL Rookie of the Year. During his career, he went to the Pro Bowl four times, earned five first-team All-Pro selections and was named Comeback Player of the Year in 1969, after leading the NFL in rushing yards, after coming back from a knee injury that forced him to miss the final five games of the 1968 season.
In 1967, Gale Sayers and his Bears teammate Brian Piccolo became the first interracial roommates in the NFL. Their friendship and Piccolo’s struggle with cancer, was chronicled in Sayers’ autobiography, “I Am Third,” which lent itself to the 1971 movie “Brian’s Song,” in which Gale Sayers was portrayed by Billy Dee Williams.
As of 2019’s NFL off-season, Gale Sayers held at least 20 Bears franchise records.
Marilyn Smith is a Los Angeles based writer/reviewer. Contact her via [email protected].
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