Jack Kemp, Bills icon, congressman, dies
Champion of conservative causes succumbs after battle with cancer
Jack Kemp, the indefatigable champion of conservatism who followed a stellar football career into the highest echelons of national politics, died Saturday. He was 73.
His spokeswoman, Bona Park, and longtime friend and former campaign adviser Edwin J. Feulner confirmed that Kemp died after a lengthy illness, in his home in Bethesda, Md., in the Washington suburbs.
The Kemp family released the following statement: “Jack Kemp passed away peacefully shortly after 6 o’clock [Saturday] evening, surrounded by the love of his family and pastor, and believing with Isaiah, ‘My strength and my courage is the Lord.’ During the treatment of his cancer, Jack expressed his gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends, a gratitude which the Kemp family shares.”
Kemp, a former Buffalo-area congressman, housing secretary and 1996 Republican candidate for vice president, was diagnosed with cancer in January.
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 Bob Dole’s running mate.
Optimistic, ebullient and passionate for his unique brand of Republican politics, Kemp occupied the grandest political stage of any Western New Yorker since Grover Cleveland. Combining his economic and political theories with an effervescent personality, he was perennially considered presidential timber — running unsuccessfully in 1988.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Kemp “one of the nation’s most distinguished public servants, Jack was a powerful voice in American politics for more than four decades.”
Kemp achieved his greatest moment as Bob Dole’s vice presidential running mate in 1996. Throughout that fall, he traveled the country for the GOP ticket in a campaign highlighted by his debate against then Vice President Al Gore.
Just days after he received the Republican vice presidential nomination at the convention in San Diego, Kemp and Dole barnstormed the country in a trip that ended in Buffalo. That’s where Kemp reaffirmed his roots during a rally at the University at Buffalo’s old football stadium.
“Buffalo, N. Y., is my hometown,” he told the crowd on Aug. 18, 1996. “Don’t let anybody tell you it’s not. And I want you to know I learned every lesson in politics and football from being a congressman and a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.”
Even after the election defeat, Kemp never left the national scene. A self-described “bleeding-heart conservative,” he maintained a bully pulpit on national affairs — and all matters economic — by the sheer force of his personality and respect he earned after decades in Washington.
When he was selected for the vice presidential spot, Washington Post columnist David Broder likened him to Hubert H. Humphrey— the New Deal Democrat with a similar devotion to politics and government.
“They had a common passion,” Broder wrote, “an urgent, irresistible impulse to make certain that this country worked for every one of its citizens, especially those whose prospects are impeded by poverty, physical infirmity or racial prejudice.”
Kemp will be remembered as the GOP’s strongest voice for greater inclusion of minorities in the party. The stand sometimes caused him problems, as in 1994 when his endorsement of Joseph H. Holland for state attorney general (an African-American who echoed many of Kemp’s theories on black empowerment) infuriated Erie County Republicans pushing the eventual nominee— Dennis C. Vacco of Hamburg.
“It’s no secret Jack Kemp believes there can’t be a Republican Party, at least in the Lincoln tradition, that does not reach inclusively to all people,” Kemp said at the state GOP convention in New York.
Jack French Kemp Jr. was born on July 13, 1935, in Los Angeles, the son of a trucking company owner and a teacher who were practicing Christian Scientists (he later became a Presbyterian). After a high school career that included football, he enrolled at California’s Occidental College, where he threw javelin and played several football positions — including quarterback.
He served in the Army from 1958 to 1962, and later did graduate work at Long Beach State University and California Western University. In 1958, he married Joanne Main, who became a valued partner in his long career.
The Detroit Lions selected Kemp in the 17th round of the 1957 draft, but his failure to make the team sent him bouncing around the National Football League and Canadian Football League for several years. Finally, he landed as a quarterback with the then Los Angeles Chargers in the 1960 inaugural season of the upstart American Football League. After the Chargers moved to San Diego in 1961, he continued at the helm of that successful team until Buffalo Bills Coach Lou Saban exploited a little-known waivers rule and claimed Kemp in 1962.
That’s when Larry Felser, retired sports columnist for The Buffalo News, first met the player he credits with transforming the Bills into a true major league franchise. When Kemp led the Bills to a 1962 victory over the Dallas Texans in War Memorial Stadium, Felser recalls the delirious Buffalo fans carrying their new quarterback off the field on their shoulders. “That was the big moment when the franchise went from being semi-minor to a big deal here,” Felser recalled.
Kemp later led the Bills to AFL championships in 1964 and 1965, all the while cultivating reputations as thinker and negotiator. He was a founder and president of the AFL players union, hinting at a future career that made him one of the most labor-friendly Republicans in Congress.
Felser also remembers cross-country flights in which Kemp engaged in passionate political debates with sportswriters while other Bills played cards. He recalled that Paul Neville, the late editor of The News, once ventured into the War Memorial Stadium locker room to find Kemp quizzing him about candidate William F. Buckley’s chances in the New York City mayoral primary.
“Neville came down to the sports department the next day and asked, ‘Do you believe that Kemp?’ ” Felser said. “That’s what some people said about Jack — he was more interested in reading the Wall Street Journal and National Review than the playbook.”
By the time he retired in 1970, Kemp had the most career passes attempted, most completions and most yards gained passing in the history of the AFL, according to Wikipedia. He was also one of only 20 players who were in the AFL for its entire 10-year existence. His name is enshrined on the Ralph Wilson Stadium Wall of Fame, and his number “15” retired.
After working in various political positions in California as well as on the staff of Gov. Ronald Reagan, Erie County Republicans made him their House candidate after Rep. Richard D. “Max” McCarthy unsuccessfully ran for the Senate. He won, defeating Democrat Thomas P. Flaherty.
Kemp quickly became a rising star in Washington, embracing conservative principles like supply-side economics, becoming a strong military supporter, and opposing abortion. He and Sen. William V. Roth co-sponsored tax cutting legislation in 1981 that became known as the Kemp-Roth tax cuts, and summarized his beliefs in a book titled “An American Renaissance.” It was the first of nine books he authored or co-authored.
He decided not to run for a 10th term while pursuing the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. He lost the presidential nod to George H. W. Bush, who also passed him over for vice president. In 1989 Bush made Kemp the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, where he became a major proponent of ideas like private ownership of public housing units and creating enterprise zones. Though he was widely considered a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, he decided not to pursue the White House. He endorsed publisher Steve Forbes in the GOP contest, but eventual nominee Dole still named him his running mate at the convention in San Diego.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Jeff and Jimmy (both of whom played professional football), and two daughters, Jennifer and Judith.
News wire services contributed to this report rmccarthy@buffnews.com
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments