Gale Sayers Biography - Born In Wichita, Kansas, Overwhelmed By Academic Demands, Named Nfl's Rookie Of The Year - CONTACT INFORMATION
football player running friendship
1943-
American football player
Knee injuries cut short the brilliant football career of running back Gale Sayers, but not before the "Kansas Comet" was recognized by the National Football League (NFL) as the greatest running back in the first 50 years of the league's history. Although he played only 68 games in professional football, in 1977 Sayers, at the age of only 34, became the youngest player ever to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Honored as the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1967, 1968, and 1970, Sayers in 1965 became the NFL's all-time leading scorer in a single season with 22 touchdowns and retired from the game with a career gain of 6,213 yards. As well as he was known for his accomplishments on the football field, Sayers is remembered by many for his friendship with fellow running back Brian Piccolo, a relationship memorialized in two memorable
Gale Sayers
made-for-television movies (the first in 1971, the remake in 2001). For many, Sayers's unwavering love and support for Piccolo during the latter's losing battle with cancer defined the essence of true friendship in its purest form.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: c/o Sayers Group, 1150 Freehanville Dr., Mt. Prospect, IL 60056. Phone: (847) 391-4040. Email: info@sayers.com. Online: http://www.sayers.com.
Gale Sayers
Additional Topics
He was born Gale Eugene Sayers in Wichita, Kansas, on May 30, 1943. The second of three sons of Roger Winfield (an auto mechanic and car polisher) and Bernice (Ross) Sayers (a homemaker), Sayers owes his first name to his mother who was hoping her second child would be a girl she planned to name Gail. When she had a son instead, the name was retained but with a spelling modification. Sayers'…
An undistinguished scholar in high school, Sayers was clearly overwhelmed by the academic demands of college. Although he continued to shine on the football field, Sayers did poorly in the classroom during his freshman year, failing English and getting dangerously low grades in most of his other courses. Because of his disappointing academic performance, Sayers was forced to enroll in summer schoo…
Sayers made a spectacular debut in pro football, rushing for a total of 867 yards and 22 touchdowns during his rookie season. His outstanding performance earned Sayers Rookie of the Year honors as well as the NFL's scoring title for the year. The high point of Sayers's rookie season with the Bears came in a game against the San Francisco 49ers on December 12, 1965, when the running b…
Brian Piccolo, one of Sayers's closest friends and the subject of the made-for-television movie Brian's Song, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on October 21, 1943. As a young child, he moved with his family to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he attended high school, participating in a number of sports. But football was his first love, and after high school, he attended Wake For…
During the 1968 season Sayers suffered his first serious knee injury. In a game against the 49ers, the running back was hit so hard that his knee was badly twisted, tearing ligaments and ending his season prematurely. Although he played only nine games in 1968, Sayers managed to rush for a very respectable total of 856 yards, averaging 6.2 yards per carry. Because of his knee injury, Sayers was fo…
In a preseason exhibition game in 1970, Sayers suffered a torn ligament in his left knee. Although he underwent surgery to repair the damage, his knee was never again the same. Despite the injury and subsequent surgery, Sayers managed to play two games during the regular season, but he was unable to maneuver with the same agility and speed for which he would become famous. He finished the season w…
In 1977 Sayers became the youngest player ever to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In his acceptance speech, Sayers looked back on the road he had traveled to football success: "God gave me a great gift and I had a lot of help developing for this occasion. Reaching this point, however, is not as important as striving to get here. This is true in all professions and all of life…
"Gale Sayers." Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 28. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2001. "Gale Sayers." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Volume 21. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2001. Hill, Michael E. "'Brian's Song': ABC Adds a Few Notes to a Classic." Washington Post (December 2, 2001): Y6. "Brian Piccolo…
Sayers, one of football's most outstanding running backs of all time, is making history of a different sort these days. After becoming a football legend in only 68 games, Sayers spent about eight years in college athletics, working first as assistant athletic director at the University of Kansas and then as athletic director at Southern Illinois University. In 1981 Sayers, with the help of …
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments
over 2 years ago
it sucks new one
over 5 years ago
he is an great history for an football player
over 1 year ago
This Is The Best Information for a 7th grader to use above and beyond..