Chicago Bears great Gale Sayers dies at 77
Hall of Fame running back known for open-field running and friendship with dying teammate
Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, who made his mark as one of the NFL’s best all-purpose running backs and was later celebrated for his enduring friendship with a Chicago Bears teammate with cancer, died Wednesday. He was 77.
Nick named “T he K ansa s Comet,” Sayers’ shy and reserved nature belied the stylistic and commanding way he played football. Unbeknownst to many, Sayers was also a business owner in the East Bay after his storied NFL career.
Relatives of Sayers had said he was diagnosed with dementia. In March 2017, his wife, Ardythe, said she partly blamed his football career.
Sayers was a blur to NFL defenses, ghosting would-be tacklers or zooming by them like few running backs or kick returners before or since. Yet it was his rocksteady friendship with Brian Piccolo, depicted in the film “Brian’s Song,” that marked him as more than a sports star.
“He was the very essence of a team player — quiet, unassuming and always ready to compliment a teammate for a key block,” Hall of Fame President David Baker said. “Gale was an extraordinary man who overcame a great deal of adversity during his NFL career and life.”
He became a stockbroker, sports administrator, businessman and philanthropist for several inner- city Chicago youth initiatives after his pro football career was cut short by serious injuries to both knees.
One of his businesses, Sayers Computer Source, a computer sales and consulting firm, was based in Livermore and Pleasanton during the 1990s and early
2000s. The bulk of their business was an account with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Sayers frequently hosted clients for leisurely rounds of golf at the Wente Vineyards course in Livermore, and participated in fundraisers for Pleasanton’s school district. But otherwise you wouldn’t have known arguably the greatest running back in NFL history was living among us.
And that was how Sayers wanted it to be. While here, Sayers politely resisted overtures from this news organization over the years to be interviewed for a profile story.
Sayers’ time on the football field also had a noteworthy Bay Area connection — both the high point and low point of his NFL career came against the San Francisco 49ers.
He had maybe the greatest game in NFL history in 1965 while running circles around the 49ers in the mud at Wrigley Field. Sayers tied an NFL record with six touchdowns that day, running for four touchdowns, catching a pass for an 80-yard score and returning a punt 85 yards for a TD in a 61-20 victory.
No NFL player in the past 55 years has duplicated Sayers’ six-touchdown game.
“It was really incredible, something to behold,” Mike Ditka, who was a Bears tight end back then, said years later. “Probably the greatest single game, I think, in the history of the game.”
Three years later, while enjoying his best season, Sayers suffered a seasonending and career- altering knee injury when he was tackled by 49ers defensive back Kermit Alexander. Sayers suffered two torn ligaments and ruptured cartilage.
“The injury was only serious because they had to saw through muscles and nerves,” Sayers would say years later. “If they’d had arthroscopic techniques in those days, I’d have been back in a couple of weeks.”