GALE SAYERS, ‘KANSAS COMET’ AND BEARS LEGEND, DIES AT 77
One of the most dazzling players in history, RB left indelible mark during short career
Former Bears running back Gale Sayers, whose dazzling moves and breakaway speed made him the most dangerous runner in football in the 1960s and earned him Hall of Fame honors despite playing in only 68 games because of injuries, died Wednesday at 77. He had been diagnosed with dementia in 2012, his wife, Ardythe, announced in 2017.
Though other great running backs were more prolific — Jim Brown before him and Walter Payton after him, among others — there rarely if ever has been a weapon as dangerous from anywhere on a football field as Sayers. The ‘‘Kansas Comet’’ scored 56 touchdowns in 64 games in his first five seasons in the NFL from 1965 to 1969 — 39 rushing, nine receiving, six on kickoff returns and two on punt returns. He also threw a touchdown pass.
“Give me 18 inches of daylight; that’s all I need,” Sayers famously said early in his career.
More than 50 years after his final full season of 1969, Sayers remains the standard of big-play threats in the NFL. He scored 18 touchdowns of 50 yards or more in his first 45 games in the NFL, including a 103-yard kickoff return, 85-yard punt return, 80-yard pass reception and 61-yard rush.
In his first four seasons in the NFL (50 games), Sayers set eight NFL records, including career rushing average (5.3 yards), total offense in a season (2,440 yards in
“IF YOU WISH TO SEE PERFECTION AS A RUNNING BACK, YOU HAD BEST GET A HOLD OF A FILM OF GALE SAYERS. HE WAS POETRY IN MOTION. HIS LIKE WILL NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN.” GEORGE HALAS, Bears owner, at Sayers’ Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1977
1966) and touchdowns in a season (22 in 1965). He tied the NFL record for touchdowns in a game (six in 1965). He also matched Ollie Matson’s NFL record of six kickoff-return touchdowns — in only 56 attempts in his first three seasons.
“I played with Gale,” former Bears wide receiver Johnny Morris said in 2019 at the convention celebrating the Bears’ 100th season. “I covered Payton [as a sportscaster/announcer], and I’ve covered a lot of guys over the years. If I wanted one player for a season, I’d take Walter Payton. But if I wanted a player for one play, I’ll take Gale Sayers above every running back I’ve seen, whether it be Jimmy Brown or O.J. Simpson.
“For one play, there’s nobody that was quicker and could cut. He had a knack of being able to cut, be in the air and swing his leg over the other leg and come down going in a different direction. That’s the best way I could put it — if I wanted a player for one play, I’ll take Gale Sayers.”
Bears chairman George McCaskey paid tribute to Sayers’ extraordinary career and life in a statement:
“Football fans know well Gale’s many accomplishments on the field: a rare combination of speed and power as the game’s most electrifying runner, a dangerous kick returner, his comeback from a serious knee injury to lead the league in rushing and becoming the youngest player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“People who weren’t even football fans came to know Gale through the TV movie ‘Brian’s Song,’ about his friendship with teammate Brian Piccolo. Fifty years later, the movie’s message that brotherhood and love needn’t be defined by skin color still resonates.”
An All-America running back at Kansas, Sayers was drafted fourth overall (the Bears took linebacker Dick Butkus third overall the same year) and was an immediate sensation as a rookie in 1965. His record-setting 22 touchdowns were divvied up like this: 14 rushing, six receiving, one on a punt return and one on a kickoff return.
Regrettably, Sayers’ brilliant NFL career played out like a Greek tragedy. At the height of his powers at 26 in 1968 — coming off games in which he rushed for 143 yards against the Vikings and 205 against the Packers — Sayers suffered a devastating, season-ending right knee injury when he was tackled by 49ers cornerback Kermit Alexander in a 27-19 Bears victory at Wrigley Field. He was replaced by Piccolo.
Sayers not only returned for the start of the 1969 season, but remarkably led the league in rushing after a slow start — with 1,032 yards on a career-high 236 carries — and scored eight touchdowns. But much of the Sayers magic was gone. His longest rush was 28 yards.
After suffering an injury to his left knee in the preseason in 1970, Sayers played only four more games in the NFL before retiring in 1972 at 29.
But Sayers’ impact on the NFL in only five seasons was immense. At the time of his retirement, he held at least a share of nine NFL records and 16 Bears franchise records. He was voted the greatest running back in the first 50 years of the NFL.
“If you wish to see perfection as a running back, you had best get a hold of a film of Gale Sayers,” Bears owner George Halas said at Sayers’ Hall of Fame enshrinement in 1977. “He was poetry in motion. His like will never be seen again.”
Despite his abbreviated career, Sayers was a unanimous selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in his first year of eligibility. At 34, he was the youngest enshrinee in the history of the Hall of Fame. He was presented by Halas.
But nothing put football in perspective for Sayers like his friendship with Piccolo, a teammate since their rookie year of 1965. Sayers credited Piccolo’s good nature and encouragement with helping him get through his recovery from knee surgery. Soon after, Piccolo faced a much greater battle against cancer in 1969. When Sayers was awarded the George Halas Courage Award for overcoming the adversity of his knee surgery, he famously dedicated the award to Piccolo at the Pro Football Writers of America banquet in New York City.
“He has the heart of a giant and that rare form of courage that allows him to kid himself and his opponent — cancer,” Sayers said upon accepting the award. “He has the mental attitude that makes me proud to have a friend who spells out the word ‘courage’ 24 hours a day, every day of his life.
“You flatter me by giving me this award, but I tell you that I accept it for Brian Piccolo. It is mine tonight, it is Brian Piccolo’s tomorrow . . . I love Brian Piccolo, and I’d like all of you to love him, too. Tonight, when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.”
Piccolo died on June 16, 1970. Sayers’ friendship with Piccolo was the focus of “Brian’s Song,” the tearjerker made-for-TV movie in 1971.
After retiring from football, Sayers returned to Kansas to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Sayers served as athletic director at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale from 1976 to 1981. He also was involved in private business and philanthropy. His No. 40 was retired by the Bears — along with Butkus’ No. 51 — in a ceremony at Soldier Field in 1994.
“It was a great honor to play in the National Football League, and I consider myself very lucky to have played here in Chicago for you, the great Chicago Bear fans,” Sayers said at the halftime ceremony that night. “I want to congratulate my teammate Dick Butkus. After my first year in the league, I prayed every week that the Bears would not trade me to another team because I would have hated to play against No. 51.
“There are two people who are very special to me who are not here tonight, but I’m quite sure they are looking down in silence and probably thinking, ‘It’s about time.’ They are George Halas and Brian Piccolo. Thank you very much.”