by Jeffrey J. Miller
We here at the Pro Football Journal have always been fans of Joe Kapp, the former star college and CFL quarterback who made a successful transition to the National Football League with the Minnesota Vikings in 1967. Kapp led the purple-and-gold to their first Super Bowl in 1969, and though they lost to the Chiefs, that feat forged Kapp’s name in the pantheon of Vikings legends.
Kapp
enjoyed an All-America career at the University of California (Berkeley), where he
led the Golden Bears to the 1958 Rose Bowl. After college, Kapp wound up signing with
Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. After two seasons, Kapp was traded to the
British Columbia Lions. Though the
league’s youngest franchise, Kapp was able to lead them to their first Grey Cup appearance
in 1963. A year later, he led them to their first Grey Cup victory.
The
American and National Leagues were taking notice, and Kapp eventually signed with Minnesota
in 1967. In three seasons with the Vikings,
Kapp registed a regular season record of 23-12-3 as a starting
quarterback, along with playoff appearances after the 1968 and 1969 seasons and
the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl appearance.
Though
a proven winner as a pro QB, Kapp was not known for beautifully thrown spirals
or elegant bombs to the end zone. In
fact, during that same three-year period in Minnesota when he was winning .657 pct of his starts, Kapp threw 37 touchdowns
passes and 47 interceptions. Rather, Kapp’s
tenure in Bloomington was highlighted by a tough-as-nails approach to
leadership, a man who seemed to thrive on contact and the enjoyment of making
defenders suffer as much as he did from brutal collisions.
As
a result, Kapp does not solely hold any NFL passing records (though he does share the record of 7 TD passes in a single game with several other QBs). However, there is one record to
which we believe Kapp can lay claim. It’s
a record attained not on the field of play, but on the obverse of football
trading cards. You see, Kapp holds the
distinction of having the same image (purportedly from his days at the University of California) used on no less than six regular stock
issue bubble gum cards between 1960 and 1969, plus one more insert card from
the 1969 Topps set giving him an actual grand total of seven card appearances! Sure, other players have had the same photo
used on multiple cards during their careers, but no one we have found can match Kapp’s record.
Congratulations,
Joe!
1961 Topps CFL
1963 Topps CFL
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Kapp does share the record of seven TD passes in a game.
ReplyDeleteActually, he does hold a passing record. He's one of 8 QBs to throw 7 td passes in one game. Which means his 37td/47int line is 30td/47int apart from that one game. Ironically the referee for that game was Adrian Burke who in 1954 threw 7 tds for the Eagles. Really though apart from 1969 Kapp was godawful.
ReplyDeletestrongly disagree.....while his passing stats are barely passable (see what I did there?), Kapp was an leader who helped the Vikings win a lot of games.....he was as John suggests, tough as nails and never shied away from contact.....I have a vivid memory of the 68 playoff game on a muddy field in Baltimore, late in the game Kapp was boxed in near the sideline by a couple Colts including Bubba Smith on a rollout/broken play, and instead of simply stepping out of bounds, you could almost see the thought balloon above his head "ahhh, what the hell..." and head lowered he crashes into Smith and they go down in a heap....a winner all the way....
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ReplyDeleteBW ...
ReplyDeleteI know SB IV was the world championship, but wasn't Kapp the first and only QB to win a CFL and NFL championship?
Yes, that is true. He is also the only QB to start in a Rose Bowl game, Grey Cup and Super Bowl.
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