Joe Kapp was a football player. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. One of his coaches, John Ralston, once said that Kapp was the only player he'd ever seen that could start at all 22 positions for his team. As starting quarterback, he lead the Cal Bears to a Rose Bowl, won a Canadian Football League Championship with the British Columbia Lions and lead the Minnesota Vikings to a Super Bowl.
While with the Vikings, he once threw seven touchdown passes in one game, a National Football League record.
Kapp was a great leader. He is known for catchy motivational sayings like "40 for 60" (40 players playing hard for 60 minutes) and "the Bear does not quit, the Bear does not die." (after a miraculous last second Cal win over Stanford in the 1982 Big Game).
He was also very tough. Most quarterbacks try to avoid getting tackled as much as possible. Kapp didn't. Instead, he would try to run over defensive players in order to gain a couple extra yards.
During one game he was asked why he hit an opposing player instead of running out of bounds. Kapp replied, "running out of bounds is for white boys." Joe Kapp is hispanic.
Kapp's stardom never went to his head. He once refused an MVP award because he didn't believe individual awards. He was always a great teammate no matter what the sport. In fact, this story is not about football at all, but how Joe Kapp won a basketball game without playing a single minute.
While at Cal, Kapp played both football and basketball. He wasn't a very good basketball player. In fact, he was, in his own words, "the 12th player on a 12 man team", meaning he rarely got to play. The Cal team, however, was very good.
One of Cal's best players was guy named Earl Robinson.
In 1958, Robinson was one of the few African Americans to be awarded an athletic scholarship at a major American university. In those days, many opposing teams and players were unable to accept this.
During one game, opposing players decided to pick on Robinson. They pushed him, elbowed him and threw racial taunts at him.
Kapp watched this from the bench and fumed. The taunting seemed to affect the whole Cal team. When the first half ended, Cal was far behind.
When the Cal team met in the locker room between halves, Joe Kapp was nowhere to be seen. He had gone to the opposing team's locker room instead.
There, he told the opposing players that he was sick of watching how they were treating Robinson. "Now you have to deal with me," he said, challenging the whole team to a fight, "who wants to go first?"
Nobody answered. In fact, nobody would make eye contact.
When the two teams went back into the gym to warm up for the second half, Kapp didn't shoot around with his teammates. Instead, he stood with arms crossed, glaring at the other team.
Kapp's actions fired up the Cal team. They played the second half with great intensity, came back and won the game.
Afterwards, a reporter asked the Cal coach (the late, great Pete Newell) what he said to motivate the team.
"I didn't have to say anything," said Newell, "Joe Kapp did all of our talking for us."
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