Walter Payton had a career in the NFL which should be a model for every player to follow. The Hall of Famer passed away in 1999, but will always be remembered by fans in Chicago, the city where Payton spent his entire 13 year career. Payton is still the standard that all other players are measured by; a fitting remembrance of this legendary player and outstanding human being.
Born in 1954 in Columbia, Mississippi, Walter was smack in the middle of the racially charged South and reflected on that throughout his public career. One of three children, Walter’s youth was not full of the technology of today and kids were kids who fished and played kick-ball and stickball and sports of all kinds. At John Jefferson High School, he found football to be his game and continued on at Jackson State in Jackson, Mississippi.
Payton was fourth in contention for the Heisman Trophy in 1975, the year that saw him becoming Chicago’s fourth draft pick. Walter Payton got off to a slow start his first season, with a mere 7 touchdowns and 679 yards, but gave the world a taste of what would come later in his final game of the season. This game saw the Bears facing off against the New Orleans Saints; Payton made a 134 yard run, something which had not been seen in Chicago since the Gale Sayers era.
His second year as a Bear saw him with 13 touchdowns and 1,000 yards, a performance which won him the NFL’s 1977 MVP title. The Bears went to the playoffs this year and Payton ran an impressive 274 yards in a single game, a record which stood for 23 years.
Walter Payton was known fondly as “sweetness” to fans and teammates, a nickname which belied his incredible 13 year career record of 16,726 total career-rushing yards, 110 touchdowns and no less than 77 100-yard rushing games.
Payton made it look easy, with 1,000 yards dashed in each season between 1976 and 1981. Payton played in every Pro Bowl from 1979 until his retirement. His rushing record has been broken since, but is record may still stand today were it not for NFL strikes which cut short the 1975 and 197 seasons.
Things got even better for Chicago once Coach Mike Ditka came on board. Ditka aggressively recruited new players to support Payton. In 1984, the Bears led their division and Payton broke Jim Brown’s running record. The day he broke the record, he dedicated his feat to those athletes whose careers were tragically cut short by injuries and illnesses.
And of course, 1986 was the year of the “Super Bowl Shuffle”, still commonly heard coming from the jukeboxes in Chicago taverns. The Bears had made it to the Super Bowl for the first time and they were victorious over the Patriots in the matchup, with a jaw-dropping 46-10 score.
In 1987, Walter Payton said goodbye to football with a tremendous send off at Soldier Field in Chicago. Walter was not one to slow down after his retirement from the NFL and sat on the Bears Board of Directors in 1988, started a CART racing team, and opened a restaurant brewpub. In 1993, his greatest triumph was achieved by being named to the NFL’s Hall of Fame.
Early in 1999, Walter, with his wife Connie beside him told the press that he had been diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis-a condition that would eventually place him on an organ donor list for a new liver. Walter did not use his notoriety to gain that liver and while he avoided the limelight during 1999, it was announced on November 1st of that year that he had passed away.
There are many stories fun, exciting, and charming about old number 34 of the Chicago Bear, but perhaps Walter’s biggest legacy is the outreach of people signing up for organ donation after his death in Illinois. We still today, miss the man, the shuffle-yeah, we still miss “Sweetness.
