One of my favorite TV features each week is A Life Well Lived on NBC on Sunday mornings. This week it was Bart Starr the legendary Green Bay Packer’s quarterback.
His story reminded me of my early years when NFL football was much simpler with only about 16 teams and choices of games to watch very limited. Fact is, my favorite NFL player for a long time was John David Crow of the St’ Louis Cardinals because we saw him every week.
But Bart Starr is a legend that deserves to be remembered. He was the only quarterback to lead his team to three consecutive NFL championships and then was the MVP of the first two Super Bowls with the first being over our Kansas City Chiefs.
Maybe Starr’s most famous play was his quarterback sneak in the infamous Ice Bowl to defeat the Dallas Cowboys.
Starr’s childhood was not easy and he actually quit his high school team as a sophomore but given an option by his dad to either return to football or work in the family garden his gridiron career resumed.
He became a high school All American in Montgomery, Alabama and moved on the Alabama University to play for the legendary Bear Bryant. He was the starting quarterback, safety and punter.
In 1954 Starr and Cherry Morton eloped and got married but had to keep their marriage a secret because Bart’s scholarship might have revoked if he was married. They were married over 60 years.
The Starr’s are remembered for their generosity and starting a camp for at-risk boys. Starr was 85 when he passed on May 26. He was one of the good guys and certainly a life well lived.
Another sports legend passing recently was Billy Buckner the pro baseball player who played for 22 years with the Cubs, Dodgers, Royals, Angles and of course the Boston Red Sox.
You see, Buckner who had a lifetime average of .289, hit 174 home runs and won the National League Batting Title in 1980 is not remembered for those feats at all, but instead for booting a routine ground ball at first base in game 6 of the 1986 World Series which led to the Red Sox losing the Series.
Buckner’s life while well lived was never the same after that day. He died ten days ago at age 69.
Bart Starr and Billy Buckner two of my heroes are gone – Rest in Peace guys.
