Gale Eugene Sayers was an American professional football player who was both a halfback and return specialist in the National Football League.
58 Facts About Gale Sayers
2.
Gale Sayers was known for his elusiveness and agility and was regarded by his peers as one of the most difficult players to tackle.
3.
Gale Sayers continued this production through his first five seasons, earning four Pro Bowl appearances and five first-team All-Pro selections.
4.
Gale Sayers was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 at age 34 and remains the youngest person to have received the honor.
5.
Gale Sayers is one of four players in the Super Bowl era to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame without ever playing a postseason game.
6.
Gale Sayers was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team as a halfback and kick returner, the only player to occupy two positions on the team.
7.
Gale Eugene Sayers was born to Roger Earl Sayers and Bernice Ross in Wichita, Kansas, and raised in Omaha, Nebraska.
8.
Gale Sayers's father was a mechanic for Goodyear, farmed, and worked for auto dealerships.
9.
Gale Sayers graduated from Omaha Central High School, where he starred in football and track and field.
10.
Gale Sayers was recruited by several major Midwestern colleges before deciding to play football at the University of Kansas.
11.
Gale Sayers said that he decided against going to Iowa after the Iowa head coach, Jerry Burns, did not have time to meet Gale Sayers during his one campus visit.
12.
In 1963, Gale Sayers set an NCAA Division I FBS record with a 99-yard run against Nebraska.
13.
Gale Sayers finished the year with 917 rushing yards, again leading all rushers in the Big Eight.
14.
Gale Sayers earned first-team All-America recognition from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Newspaper Enterprise Association, The Sporting News, and United Press International, among others.
15.
Gale Sayers finished the year with 633 rushing yards, third most among Big Eight rushers, and caught 17 passes for 178 yards, returned 15 punts for 138 yards, and returned seven kickoffs for 193 yards.
16.
Gale Sayers earned first-team All-America honors from each of the same selectors as in the previous year, in addition to the Associated Press, among others.
17.
Gale Sayers was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round, fourth overall, in the 1965 NFL Draft, and was picked fifth overall by the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League in the AFL draft.
18.
Gale Sayers gained 2,272 all-purpose yards, a record for an NFL rookie, with 1,371 of them coming from scrimmage.
19.
Gale Sayers averaged 5.2 yards per rush and 17.5 yards per reception.
20.
Gale Sayers was the last NFL player to score a rushing, receiving, and kickoff return touchdown in the same game until Tyreek Hill accomplished the feat over 50 years later, in 2016.
21.
Gale Sayers accounted for 326 yards in the game: 113 rushing, 89 receiving, and 134 on punt returns.
22.
Gale Sayers was the consensus choice for NFL Rookie of the Year honors from the AP, UPI, and NEA.
23.
Gale Sayers led the Bears in receiving with 34 catches, 447 yards, and two more touchdowns.
24.
Gale Sayers surpassed his rookie season's kick return numbers, averaging 31.2 yards per return with two touchdowns.
25.
Gale Sayers supplanted his all-purpose yards total from the previous season, gaining 2,440 to set the NFL record.
26.
Gale Sayers was named to All-Pro first-teams by the AP, UPI, the NEA, The Sporting News, and the Pro Football Writers Association, among others.
27.
Gale Sayers had three kickoff returns for touchdowns on 16 returns, averaging 37.7 yards per return.
28.
Gale Sayers had the most productive rushing yardage game of his career on November 3,1968, against the Green Bay Packers, during which he carried 24 times for 205 yards.
29.
Gale Sayers's season ended prematurely the following week against the 49ers' Kermit Alexander, when he tore several ligaments in his right knee including his anterior cruciate ligament, his medial collateral ligament, and his meniscus cartilage.
30.
Gale Sayers averaged 4.4 yards per carry and was the only player to gain over 1,000 rushing yards that year.
31.
Gale Sayers moved into second place on the Bears' all-time rushing yards list, passing Bronko Nagurski.
32.
Gale Sayers was recognized as the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year by United Press International.
33.
Gale Sayers sat out the next two games and returned in Week 4 against the Vikings, but he was still visibly hampered, most evidently when he was unable to chase down Vikings defensive lineman Alan Page during a 65-yard fumble return.
34.
Gale Sayers carried only six times for nine yards before further injuring his knee.
35.
Gale Sayers underwent surgery the following week and was deemed out for the remainder of the season.
36.
Gale Sayers had carried 23 times for 52 yards to that point.
37.
Gale Sayers entered a Paine Webber program for 45 nationwide stockbroker trainees and placed second highest in sales.
38.
Gale Sayers was kept out of the first three games after carrying the ball only twice in the preseason, as Bears head coach Jim Dooley planned to slowly work him back into the rotation.
39.
Gale Sayers was encouraged to retire but decided to give football one last try.
40.
Gale Sayers possessed raw speed and was highly elusive and had terrific vision, a combination which made him very difficult to tackle.
41.
Gale Sayers had this ability to go full speed, cut and then go full speed again right away.
42.
Gale Sayers was named the "Back of the Game", an honor he received again in 1968 and 1969, joining Johnny Unitas as the only players to win three Pro Bowl MVP awards.
43.
Gale Sayers' ensuing friendship with Piccolo and Piccolo's struggle with cancer, became the subject of the made-for-TV movie Brian's Song.
44.
The movie, in which Gale Sayers was portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in the 1971 original and by Mekhi Phifer in the 2001 remake, was adapted from Gale Sayers' account of this story in his 1970 autobiography, I Am Third.
45.
Gale Sayers worked in the athletic department at his alma mater, the University of Kansas, for three and half years, before he was named the athletic director at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1976.
46.
Gale Sayers resigned from his position at Southern Illinois in 1981.
47.
In 1984, Gale Sayers founded Crest Computer Supply Company in the Chicago area.
48.
In 2009, Gale Sayers joined the University of Kansas Athletic Department staff as Director of Fundraising for Special Projects.
49.
In September 2013, Gale Sayers reportedly sued the NFL, claiming the league negligently handled his repeated head injuries during his career.
50.
The lawsuit claimed Gale Sayers suffered headaches and short-term memory loss since retirement.
51.
Gale Sayers filed a new lawsuit in January 2014 along with six other former players.
52.
Gale Sayers was the last player to score at least six touchdowns in a game until 2020, when Alvin Kamara scored six against the Minnesota Vikings.
53.
Gale Sayers's career kickoff return average of 30.56 yards is an NFL record for players with at least 75 attempts, and he is one of several players to have scored two return touchdowns in a game.
54.
Gale Sayers is tied with four other players for the second most career kickoff return touchdowns, with six.
55.
Gale Sayers was elected to the Lincoln Journal's Nebraska Sports Hall of Fame in 1973, the first black athlete to be so honored.
56.
Gale Sayers was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
57.
Later in 1977, Gale Sayers was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and is still the youngest inductee in its history.
58.
In 1994, Gale Sayers was selected for the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team as both a halfback and a kickoff returner; he was the only player selected for multiple positions.