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Gale Sayers earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame even though he appeared in a total of just 68 NFL games.
Courtesy of RMYAuctions.com
Impressed with Sayers’s exceptional play at the collegiate level, the Bears selected him with the fourth overall pick of the 1965 NFL Draft, just moments after they claimed Dick Butkus with the third selection. Electing to sign with the Bears after also receiving a contract offer from the Kansas City Chiefs, who made him the fifth overall pick of that year’s AFL Draft, Sayers immediately displaced Jon Arnett as the team’s starting halfback upon his arrival in Chicago, after which he went on to have a fabulous rookie season. In addition to ranking among the league leaders with 867 yards rushing, 1,374 yards from scrimmage, and 898 kickoff-and punt-return yards, Sayers topped the circuit with 2,272 all-purpose yards, 22 touchdowns, 132 points scored, and a 31.4 yards per kickoff return average, earning in the process Pro Bowl, First-Team All-Pro, and NFL Rookie of the Year honors. Sayers followed that up with an equally impressive sophomore campaign, once again gaining Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro recognition by leading the NFL with 1,231 yards rushing, 1,678 yards from scrimmage, and 2,440 all-purpose yards, while also placing near the top of the league rankings with eight rushing touchdowns, 12 TDs, and a rushing average of 5.4 yards per carry.
Feeling that he needed very little room to free himself for a lengthy gain, the 6-foot, 198-pound Sayers once proclaimed, “Just give me 18 inches of daylight. That’s all I need.” Supporting his star running back’s contention, Bears head coach George Halas said, “Gale detects daylight. The average back, when he sees a hole, will try to bull his way through. But Gale, if the hole is even partly clogged, instinctively takes off in the right direction. And he does it so swiftly and surely that the defense is usually frozen.”
And, once Sayers broke into the open field, he proved to be the game’s most exciting runner, thrilling fans around the league with his great speed, elusiveness, and cutback ability that made him extremely difficult for defenders to bring down. Blessed with an uncanny ability to stop on a dime and accelerate back to full speed in only one or two steps, Sayers drew the following words of praise from Dick Butkus, who said of his teammate, “He had this ability to go full speed, cut, and then go full speed again right away. I saw it every day in practice. We played live, and you could never get a clean shot on Gale. Never.”
In describing his running style, Sayers said, “I had a style all my own. The way I ran, lurchy, herky-jerky, I kept people off-guard, so, if I didn’t have that much power when I hit a man, hell, he was off-balance, and I could knock him down.”
Sayers added, “I had great peripheral vision, there’s no doubt about that. I could see everybody on the field, and so I knew where to run, where to cut. In the same way, I had a feel for where people were because I know many times, many runs I watched on film, there’d be a fellow coming from my blind side, and there was no way I could see him, but I could feel him.”
Commenting on Sayers’s unique ability to detect the presence of anyone in his general area, O. J. Simpson stated, “I’ve watched him [on film] put moves on guys coming up behind him, I mean four yards away. No back has ever been able to do that.”
Sayers had another outstanding year in 1967, earning Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro honors for the third straight time by leading the NFL with 1,689 all-purpose yards, while also placing near the top of the league rankings with 880 yards rushing, 603 kickoff-return yards, seven rushing touchdowns, and 12 TDs, four of which came on special teams. Sayers got off to an even better start in 1968, rushing for 856 yards, amassing 1,463 all-purpose yards, and averaging a league-best 6.2 yards per carry through the first nine games, before suffering a season-ending injury to his right knee during a 27–19 home win over the San Francisco 49ers on November 10. With San Francisco cornerback Kermit Alexander delivering a blow directly to his knee as he looked to turn upfield after taking a pitch from Bears quarterback Virgil Carter, Sayers tore his anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, and meniscus cartilage, forcing him to sit out the rest of the year after undergoing surgery immediately. Looking back years later at the damage done to his knee, Sayers said, “The injury was only serious because they had to saw through muscles and nerves. If they’d had arthroscopic techniques in those days, I’d have been back in a couple of weeks.”
Upon his return to the Bears in 1969, Sayers seemed a bit slower, failing to display the same great speed and acceleration he possessed during the early stages of his career. Nevertheless, relying more on tough running and engaging tacklers for extra yards, he ended up leading the NFL with 1,032 yards rushing, while also finishing second with 1,487 all-purpose yards and placing third with eight rushing touchdowns, with his strong performance earning him Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro honors and recognition as the league’s Comeback Player of the Year. When accepting the award in the spring of 1970, Sayers famously dedicated the honor to his close friend and teammate, Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer shortly thereafter.
Unfortunately, Sayers subsequently sustained an injury to his other (left) knee during the 1970 preseason that limited him to just two games, 23 carries, and 52 yards rushing, before forcing him to go under the knife once again. Sayers attempted a comeback the following year, but he suffered another knee injury during the early stages of the campaign, prompting him to announce his retirement at season’s end. Over parts of seven NFL seasons, Sayers rushed for 4,956 yards and 39 touchdowns, caught 112 passes for 1,307 yards and nine TDs, amassed 6,263 yards from scrimmage, 3,172 yards returning kickoffs and punts, and 9,435 all-purpose yards, returned two punts and six kickoffs for touchdowns, and threw one TD pass. Sayers retired as the NFL’s all-time leader in kickoff-return yardage (2,781), with his average of 30.6 yards per return still representing the highest mark in league history. His rushing average of 5 yards per carry also places him in the league’s all-time top 10.
Yet, years later, Sayers continued to be haunted by the notion that he could have accomplished so much more had he been able to remain healthy, stating on one occasion, “Sometimes I cry about it because I didn’t get a chance to play the game. I wish they had better doctors back then.”
In explaining his decision to retire when he did, Sayers said, “I had no choice but to retire. My knees made the decision for me. I no longer had the explosiveness you need to get away from people. As a running back, the decision is probably easier than say quarterback, because we rely so much on our speed and maneuverability. Once you lose that, you should retire as a running back.”
Following his playing days, Sayers, whose friendship with Brian Piccolo inspired him to write his autobiography, I Am Third, which in turn proved to be the basis for the 1971 made-for-TV movie Brian’s Song, returned to the University of Kansas to receive his BA in physical education. Named the university’s assistant athletic director in 1973, Sayers later became director of the Williams Educational Fund, the fundraising arm of the KU athletic department. After leaving Kansas in 1976 to become the athletic director at Southern Illinois University, Sayers remained in that post until 1981, when he moved back to Chicago and launched a sports marketing and public relations firm, Sayers and Sayers Enterprises. He also later started a computer supplies business that eventually became a huge success. Diagnosed with dementia in 2013, Sayers, according to his wife, Ardythe, remains physically healthy. However, he suffers from memory loss, making simple tasks such as signing his own name difficult.
Named the greatest halfback in NFL history as part of the league’s 50th Anniversary celebration in 1969, Sayers received the additional distinction of being named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team as both a halfback and kickoff returner 25 years later, making him the only player to occupy two positions on the team. Called “the greatest player I’ve ever seen” by former teammate Mike Ditka, Sayers also drew praise from Pulitzer Prize–winning sportswriter Red Smith, who wrote, “His days at the top of his
