New York Icon: Joe Namath

Joe Namath was born and raised in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania only twenty miles from Pittsburgh. He was a standout football, basketball and baseball star. In an age where dunks were still uncommon in high school basketball, Namath could regularly dunk in games. After graduation, he received offers from six Major League Baseball teams, including the Yankees, Mets, Indians, Reds, Pirates and Phillies but football prevailed. Namath has told interviewers that he wanted to sign with the Pirates and play baseball like his idol, Roberto Clemente, but elected to play football because his mother wanted him to get a college education.

Namath fielded many offers from Division I college football programs, including Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, and Notre Dame, After initially deciding on the University of Maryland but was rejected by Maryland because his college-board scores were just below the school’s requirements. After ample recruiting by the University of Alabama’s head football coach, Bear Bryant, Namath accepted a full scholarship there. Bryant later stated his decision to recruit Namath was “the best coaching decision I ever made.”

Despite suffering a serious knee injury in his senior year at Alabama, Namath was drafted by both the National Football League and the upstart American Football League. Namath was the Jets number one pick .The knee injury however would cut his career short. but not before Namath would become a sports legend .

Namath was the American Football League Rookie of the year in 1965 . In 1967 he became the first professional quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a 14 game season. He was a four-time American Football League All-Star in 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1969. In the 1968 AFL title game, Namath threw three touchdown passes to lead New York to a 27-23 win over the defending American Football League Champion Oakland Raiders.In 1968 he earned the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. He was an AFC-NFC Pro Bowler in 1972. But Joe Namath is mostly known for brashly telling the media that he guaranteed the win for Super Bowl III and then he delivered with a spectacular upset over the highly favored Baltimore Colts coached by the legendary Don Shula in 1969.

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One Response to “New York Icon: Joe Namath”

1. New York Icon: Joe Namath | Manhattan Style | Drakz Free Online Service says:

   January 24, 2010 at 12:09 pm

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