CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- Pro football hall of famer and Chicago Bears legendary running back Gale Sayers died on Wednesday at the age of 77. Sayers was living with Dementia.
Sayers played seven years in the NFL, all with the Chicago Bears. As a rookie in 1965, he scored six touchdowns in one game, still a record to this day.
Over his career, Sayers rushed for 4,956 yards and 39 touchdowns. In 1977, at the age of 34, Sayers became the youngest player to be elected into the pro football hall of fame.
Many people may forget that after his playing days, he was the Athletic Director at Southern Illinois University (SIU) from 1976-1981.
Mike Reis is the Director of External and Broadcast Operations at SIU and is in his 42nd season of doing radio play-by-play for Southern Illinois University football, basketball and baseball.
Mike was in his early twenties when he first met Gale, and shared his thoughts and memories on working with Sayers. I told Mike that was surprised to learn Sayers was a former Athletic Director at SIU. I was hearing for the first time, and I learned through social media, I was not alone. I asked Mike what is the reaction when you hear people say they just learned Sayers was the former AD at SIU?
"Selfishly it's kind of fun that people find out 'wow that guy was here' and was for five years," Reis said. "Southern at the time in the mid '70's was trying to elevate it's football program, was trying to make it's football program big time, was trying to what we call FBS now, not necessarily Power 5 but it knew it would take money to do that so it took the gamble. A little bit like Jackson State took the gamble the other day with hiring Deion Sanders, Southern took the gamble of hiring Gale Sayers. Hired the name. Everyone at the time knew who Gale Sayers was and felt like he could help them, not only recruit money but also recruit players toward a, with an end goal of being a football power. The administration wanted that and the time felt like a celebrity like Sayers could help get that done."
Mike also brought up a great point during our conversation. Could you imagine the modern day reaction from social media if SIU was to hire someone of Sayers stature in the year 2020.
"If it happened today Jason, there would be such a flood of not just area pride but social media nationally," Reis said. "What if SIU had a person that went into the Hall of Fame while that person was at SIU? And that happened in '77 and Sayers was inducted and he was just 34 years old. He was just 33 when he SIU's Athletic Director's job. That especially is the one thing that stands out to me and the things that stand out about Sayers are the things that go with his stature, his superstar status."
People watch the film, they see the great player Sayers was, but what was he like as a person and a co-worker?
"I think that people should also know, especially for a person like me, who was 21 years old at the time, 22 years old, that you have a certain expectation of superstars and Gale Sayers was a superstar and wow Southern hired him. And I wonder what he's like. Is he going to be a good person? Or is he going to be standoffish? What is he going to be? And he was a good person. He was very confident in his abilities as a player. He was very confident in his stature, where he stood in NFL history. He knew that when he was 33 years old, but you had to get him to talk about that. He did not put that in your face, he returned phone calls, he was available. He was all the things you'd want to be. When somebody wanted him to speak, no matter how large or how small, he was there. He enjoyed fishing, he enjoyed golf and wasn't any good at either one of them but he liked being with people and he wasn't always the one to start the conversation and I think you always, we can be disappointed when we meet legends, when we meet superstars because all of a sudden you say that person is not as strong, he's not a good a person as I thought. Gale Sayers was every bit the person as he was the football player."
