OK, I have to comment on this one too.
Joe Kapp owned Vancouver when I was a kid. He had so much charisma. And Vancouver was starved for sports heroes. He brought us a Grey Cup when previously, it had seemed impossible.
The punch he threw at Angelo Mosca? LOL. I thought it was great. Two really old fogies. Ha ha. Kapp never forgot how Mosca drove through Willie Fleming, already on the ground in the 1963 Grey Cup Game. Don't mess with a Chicano. Embarrassed by his behaviour? Not a chance.
No surprise that Bud Grant and Jim Finks brought him down to Minnesota. Grant knew what he brought to a team.
IMO Grant was a superb regular season coach. NFL title games? Not so much. As noted earlier, it seemed to me he did no special game prep. He just did what got them there. And as noted, following his Super Bowl losses the Vikings won the return games the next year.
It seems Kapp made a mistake when he challenged the NFL contract.
He was certainly head strong. After winning the Grey Cup, imo, he contributed greatly to the downfall of the Lions. I recall seeing the coach send in the field goal team. Kapp sent them off. LOL.
Tough as nails. He knocked out that linebacker, (I think it was Jim Houston), when Kapp's knee caught him in the head.
In his first year in the NFL, they were facing the fearsome L.A. Rams, with their front four of Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, Rosie Grier and Lamar Lundy. At the LOS, Kapp growled: "Fu** you, Rams." Ha ha. That is machismo.
Jack Wasserman was a "man about town" reporter in Vancouver in Kapp's time here. Kapp was all the news, and wanted to show him his new house. Wasserman described how they were standing under the tall trees, looking through the fence in West Vancouver, before the move in date. Kapp was as happy and excited as a child.
He is part of our history here in Vancouver. God Bless. Rest in Peace. And maybe keep an eye out for Angelo Mosca up there. Ha ha.
One time post.
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