Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joe Kapp has died.
He was 85 years old.
Kapp’s son confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that his father died on Monday “after a 15-year battle with dementia.”
His family believes that Kapp’s dementia diagnosis may have been connected to the way he played football. Instead of avoiding defensive players, the newspaper said that Kapp “relished contact” and sought out defenders.
Kapp, according to his family, had memory loss and they believed he had the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which can be confirmed after death. His brain is being sent to the University of California, San Francisco, to be studied, the Chronicle reported.
Kapp was a powerhouse on the field as the only quarterback to lead a team to the Rose Bowl, Super Bowl and the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup, USA Today reported.
He was an All-American at the University of California, Berkeley, and started his pro career as part of the CFL, playing with Calgary and British Columbia, taking the Lions to the Grey Cup. He then jumped to the NFL, playing for the Vikings starting in 1967 and, within two years, getting the team to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 4.
Kapp finished his pro career with the Boston Patriots in 1970.
Over his NFL career, he played 51 games with 40 touchdowns and 64 interceptions, according to pro-football-reference.com.
After an acting stint that included appearances in “The Longest Yard,” “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Over the Edge,” he went back to the gridiron, but on the sidelines as head coach, despite having no coaching experience, USA Today reported.
In his first year at Cal, he took the team to a 7-4 record and went into the history books with what USA Today called a “multi-lateral game-ending kickoff return touchdown” against Stanford, running, quite literally into Stanford’s band as the runner went into the end zone. It’s called “The Play.”
He was head coach of the Bears for five seasons, ending his career with a 20-34-1 record, USA Today reported.
Kapp is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame.
He leaves behind his wife Jennifer, two daughters, two sons and six grandchildren, the Chronicle reported.