Jack Kemp, football star turned politician, dies
WASHINGTON (AP) – Jack Kemp, the former pro quarterback who turned fame on the football field into a career in national politics and a crusade for lower taxes, has died of cancer at age 73.
Family spokeswoman Marci Robinson said Kemp died shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, surrounded by his family and pastor. Kemp died at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington suburbs, friends said.
Kemp’s office announced in January that he had been diagnosed with an unspecified type of cancer. By then, however, the cancer was in an advanced stage and had spread to several organs, former campaign adviser Edwin J. Feulner said. He did not know the origin of the cancer.
Kemp, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, represented western New York for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.
Eight years later, after serving a term as President George H.W. Bush’s housing secretary, he made it onto the national ticket as Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole’s running-mate.
With that loss, the Republican bowed out of political office, but not out of politics. In speaking engagements and a syndicated column, he continued to advocate for the tax reform and supply-side policies – the idea that the more taxes are cut the more the economy will grow – that he pioneered.
Praise rolled in from fellow politicians.
“Jack Kemp’s commitment to public service and his passion for politics influenced not only the direction of his party, but his country,” President Barack Obama said in a statement issued Sunday. Obama praised Kemp as “a man who could fiercely advocate his own beliefs and principles while also remembering the lessons he learned years earlier on the football field: that bitter divisiveness between race and class and station only stood in the way of the ‘common aim of a team to win.'”
Former President George W. Bush said Kemp “will be remembered for his significant contributions to the Reagan revolution and his steadfast dedication to conservative principles during his long and distinguished career in public service.”
“Jack was an eternal optimist who was always searching for solutions that would help the American people,” Dole said. “Jack and I really got to know one another in the 1996 presidential race. We lost, but Jack’s enthusiasm and his willingness to reach out to Americans everywhere made the race an exciting one.”
Former first lady Nancy Reagan said Kemp served his country with great distinction and called him “one of the strongest Reagan ‘cheerleaders’ we’ve ever had, spreading the message of prosperity through freedom and tax reductions.”
Kemp was a 17th round 1957 NFL draft pick by the Detroit Lions, but was cut before the season began. After being released by three more NFL teams and the Canadian Football League over the next three years, he joined the American Football League’s Los Angeles Chargers as a free agent in 1960. A waivers foul-up two years later would land him with the Buffalo Bills, who got him at the bargain basement price of $100.
Kemp led Buffalo to the 1964 and 1965 AFL Championships, and won the league’s most valuable player award in 1965. He co-founded the AFL Players Association in 1964 and was elected president of the union for five terms. When he retired from football in 1969, Kemp had enough support in blue-collar Buffalo and its suburbs to win an open congressional seat.
In 11 seasons, he sustained a dozen concussions, two broken ankles and a crushed hand – which Kemp insisted a doctor permanently set in a passing position so that he could continue to play.