Joe Kapp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Joe Kapp | |
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| Position(s): Quarterback |
Jersey #(s): 22 and 11 |
| Born: March 19, 1938 Santa Fe, New Mexico |
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| Career Information | |
| Year(s): 1959–1978 | |
| NFL Draft: 1959 / Round: 18 / Pick: | |
| College: California | |
| Professional Teams | |
| Career Stats | |
| TD-INT | 40-64 |
| Yards | 5,911 |
| QB Rating | 55.1 |
| Stats at NFL.com | |
| Career Highlights and Awards | |
| College Football Hall of Fame | |
| Canadian Football Hall of Fame | |
Joseph Robert Kapp (born March 19, 1938[1] in Santa Fe, New Mexico) is a Chicano former professional American and Canadian football player. Kapp is also a former college football head coach of the University of California, Berkeley, and a former general manager of the British Columbia Lions. Kapp played quarterback primarily with the NFL Minnesota Vikings and the Canadian Football League B.C. Lions during the 1960-70's. He is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, the B.C. Lions Wall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the University of California Athletic Hall of Fame. Kapp's #22 jersey is one of eight numbers retired by the Lions.[2] In November, 2006, Kapp was voted to the Honour Roll of the CFL's top 50 players of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.[3] Sports Illustrated once called him "The Toughest Chicano." [4]
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[edit] College career
Kapp played collegiately for the University of California, Berkeley, where, in 1958, he led the team to a Pacific Coast Championship and the 1959 Rose Bowl, the school's most recent appearance. Kapp was named an All American in that same year. He also played basketball for the Golden Bears, and was on the 1956-1957 and 1957-1958 teams that won the Pacific Coast Championship. Kapp also played on the Bears team that went to the 1958 NCAA tournament. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physical Education from California in 1960.
[edit] Professional career
[edit] Canadian Football League
In 1959 Kapp joined the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL.
In 1961, the B.C. Lions, then the CFL's newest franchise, signed Kapp. The move quickly paid off for the Lions when Kapp led the team to a Grey Cup appearance in 1963. The following season, Kapp led the Lions to their first Grey Cup victory in 1964. However, the Lions proved unable to defend their championship and, before the 1967 season, Kapp headed for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings in a multi-player trade between the CFL and NFL clubs, one of the very few trades to ever occur between the two leagues.
[edit] National Football League
In 1968, Kapp led the Minnesota Vikings to their first ever playoff game as a team against the Baltimore Colts. On September 28, 1969 in a game against the Colts, Kapp threw for 7 touchdown passes which still stands as the all-time record with 4 other players (Sid Luckman, Adrian Burk, George Blanda and Y.A. Tittle). Burk was one of the officials that worked the Kapp 7 td game. That same year, Kapp led the Vikings to a 12-2 record and a berth in Super Bowl IV after defeating the Cleveland Browns 27-7 in the last NFL Championship game ever played. That year, Kapp coined the phrase "40 for 60" meaning 40 players going all out for 60 minutes. However, he was unable to lead the team to victory in the Super Bowl, as the Vikings lost 23-7 to the Kansas City Chiefs. In 1970, the NFL and AFL merged, and the NFL Championship game was no more after 50 years of NFL competition. On July 20, 1970, Sports Illustrated dubbed Kapp "The Toughest Chicano" on the cover of its weekly magazine.
A contract dispute forced Kapp to be traded to the Boston Patriots in 1970 where he was the highest paid player in the league. Unfortunately, he played very poorly that season, leading the Patriots to the league's worst record, and one year later he retired from pro football.
[edit] Post Football Playing Career
[edit] University of California, Berkeley Head Football Coach
In 1982, after a brief acting career in such movies as The Longest Yard, Two-Minute Warning, and Semi-Tough, Kapp was hired as the head football coach at his alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley. In his first year as head coach, he was voted the Pacific 10 Conference Coach of the Year.
In December of 1981, Kapp made a promise to the football team that he would not consume any of his favorite alcoholic beverage, tequila, until the Golden Bears reached the Rose Bowl. As of October 2007, the Golden Bears have yet to return to the Rose Bowl and Kapp has resorted to drinking rum instead[1].
Kapp was the coach during The Play, the famous five-lateral kickoff return by the Cal team to score the winning touchdown on the final play of the 1982 Big Game against arch rival Stanford University.
[edit] General Manager of the B.C. Lions
In an effort to recapture their past glory, the British Columbia Lions hired Kapp as the team's new general manager in 1990. Kapp's tenure was marked by his tendency to recruit ex-NFL players such as Mark Gastineau whose best football days had already expired. Kapp was fired 11 games into the Lion's schedule, his most valuable legacy was the signing of quarterback Doug Flutie, who would star in the CFL over the next decade.
[edit] Current life
Today, Kapp lives in the town of Los Gatos, California and makes himself available as a guest speaker. He has a wife and three children. He was one of the owners of Kapp's Pizza Bar & Grill in Mountain View, California, which contains memorabilia from his career.
[edit] References
- ^ According to BrainyQuote.com
- ^ B.C. Lions Retired Numbers. BCLions.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
- ^ TSN Top 50 Honour Roll. TSN.ca (2006-11-28). Retrieved on 2007-05-01.
- ^ Cover, Sports Illustrated," July 20, 1970
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Joe Kapp at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview With Coach Joe Kapp, May 3, 1994. Accessed October 15, 2007.
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