Jack Kemp
Jack French Kemp Jr. (born
July 13,
1935) is an
American politician and former professional
American football player. He was the
Republican candidate for the
vice presidency in the
1996 presidential election.
Kemp was born, raised and educated in
Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of
Occidental College, where he was a member of the
Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.
Jack Kemp began his professional football career in 1957 when he was selected by the
Detroit Lions in the 17th round of the
NFL Draft. After three NFL seasons with the
Pittsburgh Steelers and the
New York Giants, Kemp signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers of the AFL. Kemp won two
American Football League Western Division championships with the Los Angeles/
San Diego Chargers before being picked up by the
Buffalo Bills. He led Buffalo to three straight Eastern Division titles and two American Football League championships, in 1964 and 1965, throwing to receivers
Elbert Dubenion and
Ernie Warlick. Kemp was the first 3,000 yard passer in the American Football League (1960, 14-game schedule) and the league's
Most Valuable Player in 1965. He had the most career passes attempted, most completions and most yards gained passing in the history of the American Football League.
Jack Kemp was an
American Football League All-Star six consecutive years and for seven of the league's ten years, and the only AFL quarterback to be a starter all ten years. Kemp co-founded the American Football League Players Association with
Tom Addison of the
Boston Patriots, and was elected its president five times. He was one of only twenty players who were in the American Football League for its entire ten-year existence.
Kemp represented the
Buffalo, New York region in the
United States House of Representatives from
1971 to
1989. In 1988 he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Presidential nomination, and subsequently served as the
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from
1989 to
1993 under President
George H. W. Bush.
Kemp was the Republican Party's Vice Presidential nominee in
1996, running alongside Senator
Bob Dole.
Although mentioned as a possible 2000 presidential candidate, Kemp did not run, instead endorsing eventual winner
Governor of Texas George W. Bush.
Jack Kemp also started the
free market advocacy group Empower America, which later merged with
Citizens for a Sound Economy to form
FreedomWorks, but resigned as Co-Chairman of FreedomWorks in March 2005 after he was questioned by the FBI about his ties to
Samir Vincent, a Northern Virginia oil trader implicated in the
U.N. Oil-for-food scandal who pled guilty to four criminal charges stemming from the scandal, including illegally acting as an unregistered lobbyist of the Iraqi government of
Saddam Hussein.[
1]
His legacy includes the
Kemp-Roth Tax Cut of the
1980s, also known as the first of the two "
Reagan tax cuts." He also served at a Distinguished Fellow at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute where he
wrote regularly on economic and regulatory issues.
Jack Kemp has been a joking opponent of soccer, the world's most popular sport. In 1986 on the House floor, Kemp famously proclaimed "I think it is important for all those young out there, who someday hope to play real football, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands, a distinction should be made that football is democratic, capitalism, whereas soccer is a European socialist sport." Kemp says he based his speech on one of
George Carlin's classic comedy routines on the differences between baseball and football.
Jack Kemp has since 'changed' his position on soccer and endorsed it as a sport, although he says it is still a
"boring game".
*
List of American Football League players*Clinton, Bill (2005).
My Life. Vintage. ISBN 140003003X.
*Foer, Franklin (2004).
How Soccer Explains the World. Harper.
*
*
Football Cards of Jack Kemp-
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