Kapp is the only quarterback to appear in the Rose Bowl, Super Bowl and Canada’s Grey Cup.
LOS GATOS — Joe Kapp made the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1970 with the memorable headline, “The Toughest Chicano.”
But the tough-talking quarterback was ready to recount his memorable life and times to anyone willing to listen. It was after that improbable victory that Kapp uttered his famous quote: “The Bear will not quit! The Bear will not die!”As his memory diminished in his 70s, Kapp began investigating the concussion issue. He kept a pile of newspaper stories in the shed behind his downtown Los Gatos cottage where Kapp had lived for decades and discussed playing through head injuries.
“I’ve got delusions of dementia,” he said during a long interview in 2015. When asked if he had ever suffered a broken bone, Kapp replied, “Do you want me to start at the top or the bottom — never mind the head?” The last quarterback to lead Cal to a Rose Bowl held court at his favorite Los Gatos haunt, C.B. Hannegan’s, where in later years he would scream over the background music because his hearing was shot.
No one considered him quarterback material because of his small stature. He was a receiver at Salinas High School. Kapp recalled suffering from Osgood-Schlatter disease, a painful inflammation of the lower front of the knee.
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