So Sad Minnesota vikings lose a key player of 27 year in an accident…
QB Joe Kapp, a former Viking, passes away at the age of 85.
The hard-nosed quarterback Joe Kapp, who led the Minnesota Vikings to their first Super Bowl and California to their final Rose Bowl, has passed away. Kapp frequently rushed into tacklers rather than away from them. He was eighty-five.
Kapp passed away on Monday, according to Cal. According to his son J.J. Kapp, he has been living at an assisted living home for the past fifteen years due to Alzheimer’s illness.
The family decided to give his brain to researchers at UC San Francisco so they could examine if his severe style of play and the impacts he sustained to the head were related.
Kapp had a great career as a college player at Cal, highlighted by a Rose Bowl trip in 1959. He then had success in Canada before entering the NFL. After replacing Fran Tarkenton in Minnesota, he guided the Vikings to the 1969 Super Bowl, where they were defeated by Kansas City.
The only quarterback to win a Rose Bowl, Grey Cup, and Super Bowl with his club is Kapp. In a 1969 victory over Baltimore, he accounted for seven touchdown passes, tying the NFL single-game record.
J.J. Kapp compared it to having his or her own superhero residing in the house during a phone interview with The Associated Press.
Kapp, who was regarded as a warrior on the field, was featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story wherein the magazine called him “The Toughest Chicano.” That was the title of J.J. Kapp and two other friends’ memoirs, which was released in 2019.
Mexican American mother Kapp was a fervent supporter of the Latino community and collaborated with activist Cesar Chavez for
Being one of the first Mexican-American football stars and one of only two Mexican Americans to start at quarterback in a Super Bowl, he blazed a road for Jim Plunkett and other Mexican-American football players.
Later, Kapp spent five seasons as the head coach of his alma mater. He was also present for one of the most iconic plays in school history, when the Golden Bears, in the waning moments of 1982, defeated rival Stanford by returning a kickoff with five laterals and scoring the touchdown with the Cardinal band on the field.
Before the 1982 season, when he was hired as Cal’s head coach, he made a promise to abstain from his favorite alcoholic beverage, tequila, until the Bears returned to the famed bowl game. They never produced
it back in his lifetime. Kapp had a 20-34-1 record in five years at Cal, his final game being the biggest upset in the history of the rivalry with Stanford when the Golden Bears won as 21-point underdogs.
“Playing for and coaching at Cal meant the world to him,” J.J. Kapp said.
His grandson, Frank Kapp, also was a member of the Golden Bears last decade. Kapp was cognizant of the toll the sport took on his body and mind, but nonetheless he was proud of his career.
“He used to tell people to put your son in piano lessons and not let them play football, but he let me play and he let my brother play,” J.J Kapp said, adding: “He never regretted playing football.”
Kapp spent his first eight seasons in the CFL with Calgary and the BC Lions. He took the Stampeders to the playoffs in his second season and led the Lions to back-to-back Grey Cup appearances, winning it all in his second try in 1964.
“Along with helping put the Lions on the map after some lean early years, Joe also served as a trailblazer for quarterbacks making a name for themselves on both sides of the border,” the BC Lions said in a statement.
He then went to the NFL in 1967 as part of a complicated trade between teams in different leagues and replaced Tarkenton, who had been traded by Minnesota to the New York Giants.
Kapp helped the Vikings make the playoffs before losing to Baltimore in 1968 and then threw 19 TD passes and led Minnesota to a 12-2 record the following year when he finished second in MVP voting.
He ran and threw a TD pass against Cleveland to lead Minnesota to a 27-7 victory in the 1969 NFL title game. The Vikings then lost the last Super Bowl before the merger to Kansas City. Always a team-first player, Kapp was voted Most Valuable Player by the Vikings that season but refused to accept it on his stance that all 40 players on the roster were equally valuable. He coined the mantra “40 for 60,” referencing every player giving his best for all 60 minutes of the game.
“Men like Joe Kapp are the cornerstones the Minnesota Vikings franchise was built upon,” Vikings owner Mark Wilf said. “Joe’s toughness and competitive spirit defined the Vikings teams of his era, and his tenacity and leadership were respected by teammates and opponents alike.”
Kapp left as a free agent the following season and played briefly for the Patriots in 1970. He refused to sign with the team after New England drafted Jim Plunkett first overall in 1971 and never played again. He filed an antitrust suit against the league that he eventually lost, but it helped pave the way for the free agency system that eventually took hold.
Kapp was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and moved around California as a child before becoming a four-sport athlete at Hart High School in Newhall and becoming the first person in his family to attend and graduate from college. Kapp helped lead Cal to the Pacific Coast Conference title in 1958 and the accompanying trip to the Rose Bowl, where the Bears lost to Iowa. He also played basketball at Cal.
Kapp was survived by his second wife, Jennifer Kapp; four children and six grandchildren. His first wife, Marcia Kapp, died in 2005.
