The "Greening" of the NFL

Reggie Williams '76, Nick Lowery '78, and Jeff Kemp '81, professional football players in the National Football League, are well known to Dartmouth sports fans and to millions of pro football fans across the country.

Williams, an all-American in 1975, has been one of the NFL's most respected linebackers for nine years with the Cincinnati Bengals. Lowery, who hit a perfect 51 out of 51 extra points at Dartmouth, has become a record setting placekicker during five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. Kemp became the starting quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams early in the '84 season and kept them in the running for the playoffs.

What the three do on the field each Sunday, however, is only half of the story. Perhaps it is off the field that they make their greatest contributions. The work Williams, Lowery, and Kemp do with charity groups and youth organizations has earned them the respect of teammates, coaches, and fans. All three were nominated for the NFL Man of the Year Award this season. The award was created in 1970 to honor outstanding "citizen-athletes" and to recognize players who contribute large amounts of time to their communities.

"It bridges the gap between the professional athlete and the people in the community," says Williams. "It also gives recognition to ballplayers who go beyond the call of duty." Past winners include Johnny Unitas and George Blanda. "It's a great honor," says Dartmouth football coach Joe Yukica. "It's a tribute to them as individuals and to Dartmouth."

Each team selects three players for the NFL Man of the Year. During the season, fans in each of the NFL's 28 cities vote for a Man of the Year. Reggie Williams, incidentally, was the Bengals' Man of the Year in both 1982 and 1983. "To get awards like this you have to be both team-oriented and people-oriented," says Yukica.

The top five club winners in the balloting throughout the NFL become finalists for the award. A media committee then judges the qualifications of the five finalists and selects one player as the NFL Man of the Year. Sponsored by Lite Beer from Miller, the contest is administered by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

A $5,000 college scholarship fund is distributed in the name of the winner to a student or students in the city where the Map of the Year plays. Scholarships of $2,000 each are established in the names of the remaining four finalists in their cities, and $1,000 scholarships are set up in the names of the top vote-getters in the remaining 23 NFL cities. The 1984 scholarships totaled $36,000.

By the length of the list of charity organizations he is associated with, it's difficult to imagine how Williams finds time to sack opposing quaraterbacks. Last year, he was co-chairperson of the Cincinnati Cerebral Palsy Telethon and was the Bengals' representative for the NFL/United Way television promotion series. He is also active in the Arthritis Foundation and a board member of the National Association of Speech and Hearing. In Cincinnati, he is a member of the Citizen's Committee on Youth and a trustee of the Boys' Club. He also works with the city's Big Brothers and Big Sisters program and the Diabetes Foundation and has raised more than $30,000 from local businesses for promising high school seniors in the Cincinnati area.

Nick Lowery started a "Kick with Nick" program in 1983, in which fans made pledges and he donated money himself for every field goal he kicked during the season. The money was given to United Cerebral Palsy of Kansas City. Lowery is also involved with several other charitable functions during the off-season, including the Special Olympics and the March of Dimes. Jeff Kemp, the most recent Big Greener to achieve star status in the NFL, is active in the Special Olympics and the Olive Crest Treatment Center in Los Angeles, which specializes in assisting children without parents.

The 1983 NFL Man of the Year was San Diego Charger Rolf Benirschke, who spent several years of his childhood in Hanover when his father was attending Dartmouth Medical School.

Dartmouth is the only Ivy League school represented among the 84 nominees in 1984. In fact, only two schools in the country had more players nominated than Dartmouth Oklahoma with five and UCLA with four. Coach Yukica doesn't think it's just coincidence that all three Dartmouth players were nominated for Man of the Year. "It's the nature of Dartmouth College," Yukica says. "I don't care where a guy comes from. It doesn't take long for everybody to feel at home here. There's a friendliness and openness at Dartmouth that really rubs off on people. A real tight bond and closeness develop among students. When they leave here, it carries over." W

Dartmouth NFL stars in action as undergrads: left to right, Kemp, lowery, Williams