Gene Upshaw, 15 Aug 1945 - 20 Aug 2008
Posted: Thursday, August 21, 2008 by Travis Cody inGene Upshaw, Hall of Fame offensive guard for the Oakland Raiders and long time executive director of the National Football League Players' Association (NFLPA), died yesterday from pancreatic cancer. He was 63.
That picture shows the prototypical offensive guard from the 60's and 70's...lean and fast and strong.
My emotions have been in a jumble all day.
I grew up with the Raiders. Mr Upshaw was a first round pick for Oakland in the 1967 AFL draft. This was just before the AFL/NFL merger. He is recorded as the NFL Raiders' third round pick that year. He went on to play 15 seasons. He appeared in three Super Bowls, losing to the Packers in his rookie season and winning championships in 1976 and 1981. He's a member of the 1970s All Decade team, and a member of the NFL 75th Anniversary team. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1987.
I was three years old in 1967. I remember watching football with my mom. She taught me and I learned. And there was no other team but the Silver & Black, the Pride & Poise boys who were Committed to Excellence. I clearly remember the agony of losing to Green Bay in Super Bowl II, and to this day I detest the Packers. I remember the joy of finally breaking through in 1976 and destroying Minnesota. And I remember crowing to all my friends in 1981, my senior year in high school, when Oakland became the first wild card team to win a Super Bowl.
So I guess you could say that Mr Upshaw and I came to the NFL at the same time, and grew with it. We're lifetime Raiders.
And I hurt today. I mourn today.
There are so many memories. It's almost too much.
Maybe I shouldn't be so upset by this. Maybe it's silly, and a bit foolish for a grown man to hang on to that kind of adulation for a former professional athlete. He was a football player, then a politician with the players' union. What does that have to do with me?
It has everything to do with me and my memories. I can't explain it. Maybe I don't have to explain it.
Maybe it's enough that the death of Gene Upshaw hurts today. It hurts because it does.
I can relate to your feelings -I think. Remember I am a Penn State Nittany Lions fan (and alum) and as such, the coach who will always be in my memory of Penn State would be Joe Paterno. Now I know there are many -Penn Staters as well as other non-Nittany Lion fans -who would argue with me about him being a great coach and all that, but my greatest memories of Penn State Football fall under his reign -and yes, I would mourn if/when something happens to him as he did build himself into quite a legand, didn't he? And to mourn is to feel the loss private or public of something you hold near and dear so, no need to explain that aspect in my book Trav.