Rancho Cordova legend savors ‘special’ memories of NFL great Gale Sayers
Kevin Willhite revealed something about himself, a juicy tidbit from a guy I have reported on and talked to for some 30 years.
First, some background on Willhite.
He remains the most intensely recruited high school football prospect in Sacramento-region history. This is punctuated by Willhite being named by multiple publications or organizations as the national player of the year in 1981 for his ability to sprint or blast through defenders for the nationally renown Cordova Lancers.
Willhite often speaks of good genes and good fortune, and of bad luck and what might have been. This discussion includes his cousin, Gale Sayers, the electrifying Chicago Bears halfback great who died this week at 77.
So that secret, Kevin?
”Very few people know this but my real first name is Alfred, named after my mother’s father, Alfred Sayers,” Willhite said by phone amid laughter. “I’m Alfred Kevin Willhite. My mom’s father and Gale’s father were brothers, so I really have a lot of Sayers in me. I’m so proud of that. It’s sad that Gale is gone and we all feel it.”
The Sayers and Willhite roots are connected to Kansas. Sayers was the “The Kansas Comet” during his collegiate days as a Kansas Jayhawk. He rushed for 4,956 yards and 39 touchdowns over a seven-year NFL career, undone by knee injuries in an era where the next best option to a long, snaking surgical scar from major reconstruction was basically amputation.
Sayers retired in 1971. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 at age 34, the youngest to gain that honor. Bears coach George Halas said of his star during that Hall induction, “If you want to see perfection as a running back, you best get ahold of film of Gale Sayers. He was poetry in motion. His like will never be seen again.”
Sayers was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary Team in 1994 at halfback and as a kicker returner, the only one named to two positions. He was voted to the NFL’s All-Time 100 team last year.
Sayers was blessed with those legs, and cursed by them as they buckled from contact.
Willhite can relate.
Willhite introduced by Sayers
Willhite rushed for nearly 5,000 yards and 72 touchdowns at Cordova, a sight to behold at 6-foot and 205 pounds with state-meet sprinter speed. He would dash for 80-yard touchdowns at Hughes Stadium, then hustle to the airport for a red-eye recruiting flight to Notre Dame, SMU or USC.
In a Bee story in 2000, I ranked Willhite as the second-best prep football player in area history, based on high school feats, behind lineman Tedy Bruschi of Roseville and ahead of running back Onterrio Smith of Grant. No area player has been as decorated as Willhite, however.
He accepted one of his 1982 national honors at a ceremony in Washington D.C., where he took photos with President Ronald Reagan and Sayers, who presented Willhite with the award.
“Amazing,” Willhite said, looking back on the moment. “It was a big event, a $2,000-a-plate dinner. It was such an honor to have Gale, my cousin, say such nice words about me. I was thrilled.”
Willhite had every name college football in the land after him. The recruiters knew about the genes and were awed by his game film. He was even better in person. A Washington recruiter rented a hotel room for months in Rancho Cordova to keep on top of Willhite, well before social media, cell phones and the internet.
Willhite signed with Oregon.
Undone by same thing as Sayers
Willhite’s football gift was burst, but his legs blew out from his own force. He tore his hamstring during a track meet his senior season at Cordova, then hurt it again his first season at Oregon in 1982. Willhite once told me his career was that of “a falling star.”
But he stuck it out in Eugene, pained by any suggestion of being a bust. Denied of his speed, Willhite wound up starting at fullback at the end of his Ducks career. He was a member of Oregon’s 1984 NCAA championship track team — and he graduated. He was not a Ducks failure.
His love and loyalty to the school remains.
“Right now, I’m driving with Ducks shorts on, Oregon socks and a Oregon shirt,” Willhite said. “I love Oregon.”
Willhite was not drafted, but he played part of the 1987 season with the Green Bay Packers, once tearing off a 61-yard run. That was his last football hurrah.
He married his college sweetheart, Karen, and they raised three kids in Elk Grove (Kaelin is in the Navy, stationed in Hawaii; Kamryn is an exchange college student in Germany; and Kellen is a recent San Francisco State graduate).
For years, someone would recognize him at a grocery store, ask if he was the Kevin Willhite, and then challenge him to a sprint. For cash, of course. Street clothes and all, Willhite never broke stride.
”I made so much money off younger kids thinking they could beat me,” Willhite said with a laugh.
Willhite’s body and mind are sound. He feels good at 57.
“I try to get some exercise in every day as I try to get my summer body,” Willhite said. “I tell people these muscles are not for running or track any more. They’re only for show!”
Gerald Willhite starred in NFL and paid for it
Willhite and brothers Darrell, George, Randall and Gerald and sister Terri used sports to keep active growing up in Rancho Cordova. Randall went on to play at Oregon, as a teammate of Kevin. Gerald became the most accomplished of the lot football wise after high school, leading to his induction into the Sacramento Sports Hall of Fame in January.
Gerald did not play football at Cordova. There was no room for a 98-pounder, but Gerald grew 7 inches and gained 100 pounds in just over a year. He excelled at American River College and at San Jose State as a versatile running back.
Gerald was a first-round pick of the Denver Broncos in 1982. He caught John Elway’s first game-winning touchdown in the NFL, played in a Super Bowl and logged seven rough-and-tumble seasons. He lives in Southern California and feels the wear and tear of football, telling me a year ago, “I hurt every day.”
The Willhites now hurt for Sayers, their fallen hero, and that side of the family. Sayers had dementia, tied his football days. His brother, Roger Sayers, told the Kansas City Star, “tough to build memories all your life, and the next thing you know, you don’t remember anything.”
Said Willhite, “That’s the sad part of it, the dementia. Football is safer now than ever, but it’s too late for the retired guys. I know so many guys and friends who are brain-damaged from football.”
Willhite paused and added, “I talk to Gerald a lot. Asked him if he’d do it all over, his football career. He’s not sure. Five knee surgeries, broken fingers, broken toes, broken legs, concussions. His body was so beat up and tore up. That’s a big price to pay.”
What endures are the memories, including Willhite in the open field or Gerald doing backward flips in the end zone at Mile High Stadium. But no one in this gifted family could match Sayers.
”Oh, Gale was special, the best,” Willhite said. “We grew up knowing the name Gale Sayers was so closely tied to our family. It’ll always be special to us.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 7:37 AM.