Kapp, former QB for Cal, Vikings, passes away at 85
Joe Kapp, who played quarterback at Cal and later on led the Minnesota Vikings to the Super Bowl, died Monday at
age 85. J.J. Kapp verified his daddy’s death to the San Francisco Chronicle, stating it came following a “15-year battle with dementia.”
Raised in California, Kapp played both football and basketball at Cal. On the field, the All-American led the Golden Bears to the Pacific Coast Conference championship in 1958 and onto the Rose Bowl. The Bears lost to Iowa in the 1959 game– the last appearance in the Rose Bowl for Cal.Kapp spent 8 seasons in the Canadian Football League, twice leading the British Columbia Lions to the Grey Cup title game. He relocated to the NFL in 1967, leading the Vikings to the Super Bowl following a 12-2 season in 1969.
Minnesota lost Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-7. Still, Kapp is the only quarterback to lead groups to a Rose Bowl, Grey Cup and Super Bowl.Kapp invested
3 seasons with the Vikings and signed with the Boston Patriots in 1970 after Minnesota didn’t use him a brand-new contract. After the season, commissioner Pete Rozelle intervened and stated the four-year contract Kapp signed with the Patriots was void. Rozelle ruled Kapp needed to sign a modified agreement to continue in the NFL, and Kapp never ever played again.
Joe Kapp, who was an All-American at Cal, played eight seasons in the Canadian Football League and three seasons with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, remains the only quarterback to lead groups to a Rose Bowl, Grey Cup and Super Bowl. Getty Images
He finished his NFL career with a 24-21-3 record as a starter. He tossed for 5,911 backyards, with 40 touchdowns and 64 interceptions.He submitted an antitrust suit versus the NFL and eventually won but wasn’t granted any damages.Kapp had little acting functions in movies, including in”The Longest Lawn, “in the 1970s. In 1982, he took over as head coach at Cal in his first-ever coaching task. He was the coach of the Bears throughout the Nov. 20, 1982, game versus Stanford, when Cal unbelievably won with 4 seconds left in a contest marked by the Stanford band too soon stepping onto the field.Cal fired Kapp in 1986 after a 20-34-1 record.In later years, as he dealt with dementia, Kapp said in an interview that he feared he had
persistent distressing encephalopathy( CTE), a brain disease affecting numerous previous football players.J.J. Kapp said his dad’s brain will be studied at UC San Francisco to figure out whether Kapp was affected with CTE.