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Joe Namath was Born
Joseph William Namath was born on May 31,1943 at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He was one of five children, three boys and one adopted girl named Rita, in his entire family. He was the youngest child in his whole family. Joe's father, John Namath, was from Raho, Hungary, and went to Ellis Island at eleven years old. He also worked as a helper for a steel company in his twenties. His mother, Rose Juhasz, was the daughter of two Hungarians. Joe's parents divorced later in his childhood. -
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Joe Namath's Lifespan So Far
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The Cold War (1945-1991)
On February 4, 1945, the Cold War began. It was a war between the United States as the leader of democracy and the Soviet Union as the leader of communism. It was a war of words and not weapons between the two sides. It lasted four decades and ended when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall fell. The war officially ended in 1991. -
The Korean War (1950-1953)
The Korean War started on June 25, 1950. It was the first shooting conflict in the Cold War and it was between North Korea and South Korea. North Korea was a communist government and supported by the Soviet Union. South Korea was a capitalist government supported by the United States. The war ended in July of 1953 and there were no real winners of the war although 4 million people were killed including 33,600 Americans. -
The Vietnam War (1955-1975)
The Vietnam War commenced on November 1, 1955. It was part of the Cold War. The war was between the communist North Vietnam and the anti-communist South Vietnam. The United States of America sent troops to fights against the North Vietnam. More than three million Americans served in the Vietnam War, 1.5 million of them whom saw combat in the war. Even though the North won the war in 1975, both sides caused tons of destruction. -
The Space Race (1957-1975)
The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to determine who was the leader in space exploration. It embarked on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union sent Sputnik 1 into outer space. President Richard Nixon of the United States and the Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev agreed to a mission together, where a spacecraft from each counrty docked with each other on July 17,1975. This marked the end of the Space Race. -
Namath Leads the Beaver Falls Tigers to a WPIAL Class AA Championship
In 1960, Joe Namath led his high school's football very own football team, the Beaver Falls Tigers, to a WPIAL Class AA Championship. This was remarkable for him and his teammates because they were not predicted to even get that far during that football season. Finishing with a 10-0 undefeated record, his team was coached by Larry Bruno, who passed away in 2010 when he was 88 years old. He would later be Joe's presenter to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. -
Joe Namath is Recruited by the Alabama Crimson Tide
Joe Namath was recruited by the Alabama Crimson Tide in July of the year 1961. He was recruited by coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, a legendary football coach at Alabama. What was interesting about when he was recruited is because the African American Civil Rights Movement occured a that time. He also accepted a full scholarship there in Alabama in addition to that. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His "I Have a Dream" Speech
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. near the Washington Monument. This speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement and was delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters. -
JFK is Assassinated
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated on November 22,1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps. This particular assassination stunned the United States of America and made them all martyrs because their president, Kennedy, had been shot and killed. The whole entire country reacted to it. Schools had their students be dismissed early and at the upcoming Sunday's football game, Cleveland Browns fans carried signs decrying Dallas as having "killed the President." -
Joe and the Crimson Tide win a NCAA Football National Championship
Joe Namath lead the Alabama Crimson Tide to a NCAA (National College Association) Football National Championship on Thanksgiving Day, 1964. This was Joe's only NCAA Championship win in his total college football career with the Crimson Tide. When he was a quarterback at Alabama, he led their football team to an excellent 29-4 record over a period of three seasons. -
Namath is Drafted
Joe Namath was drafted by the NFL (National Football League) for the St. Louis Cardinals and the AFL (American Football League) for the New York Jets on November 28, 1964. He was surprisingly drafted with a terrible and wobbly right knee from a serious injury to that particular knee in college. Even though he was drafted by two completely different football leagues, he decided to sign with the AFL's New York Jets. -
Namath is Awarded the AFL Rookie of the Year
Joe Namath was awarded the AFL Rookie of the Year in 1965, even though his stats weren't the best for a rookie at that particular time in the AFL. His completion percentage was very low, a little bit under fifty percent, and his total passer rating was not too shabby, at 65.5 out of a possible 158.3. He also won that award shockingly, because the New York Jets, Namath's team, only won five games, lost eight, and tied one game, making the Jets' record for the 1965 season 5-8-1. -
Joe Namath Becomes the First 4,000 Yard Passer
Namath became the first professional quarterback to become a 4,000 yard passer in a season in pro football history at the end of the 1967 AFL regular season. He achieved this goal when he threw for 4,007 yards throwing in that particular season. However, Namath's record was later broken by Dan Fouts of the San Diego Chargers in the 1979 NFL regular season, who would also become an inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, like Namath. -
Martin Luther King Jr. is Assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee at 6:01 p.m. Central Time. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray, a criminal. Martin was hit by a single .30 bullet fired from a gun while standing on the motel's second floor balcony. This tragic event made the King family full of melancholy and sadness. -
Joe and the Jets Win Super Bowl III
Joe Namath and the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts to win the Third AFL-NFL World Championship Game (Super Bowl III) in 1969. The Jets, along with Namath, shocked the experts with this victory because the experts predicted that the Colts would totally beat the Jets by a prodigious margin. The Jets won 16-7, and Namath was named the MVP (Most Valuable Player) of that particular game over his boyhood idol, Johnny Unitas. Johnny even admitted that Namath was a great player, too. -
Namath Throws for 496 Yards in a Single Game
On September 24, 1972, Namath threw for a phoenominal 496 yards passing in a single game during a Jets win against the Baltimore Colts 44-34. He threw for an excellent six touchdowns as well. Both Joe Namath and Jonny Unitas threw for a combined total of 872 yards in the air (passing). That game is considered by many NFL experts to be the most exceptional display of passing in a single game in NFL history. This was the Jets first win against the Baltimore Colts since Super Bowl III. -
President Richard Nixon Resignes
President Richard Milhous Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, because of pressure from the public and the leaders of his political party over Watergate. Watergate was a series of scandals in which members of Nixon's political party abused their power and bribed people to get what they want done. He was the first and only president to resign from office. -
Namath Permanently Retires
Namath permanently retired for good from the NFL in 1977 after playing one season with the Los Angeles Rams. In his career, he threw 173 touchdowns and 220 interceptions. His career passer rating was 65.5 and threw for 27,663 yards passing. Joe Namath's total completion percentage is 50.1, and the longest pass that he threw was a 91 yard pass. Lastly, Namath was sacked 150 times, which must have been painful for him. He played football in the NFL and AFL for thirteen seasons. -
Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-1981)
On November 4, 1979 Islamic students took control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and seize 60 American hostages. They released women and African-American, but kept 51 hostages for 444 days. An agreement called the Algiers Accords ended the crisis, an on January 20, 1981, twenty minutes after President Regan was inaugurated, all the hostages were finally released. -
Joe Namath Meets Deborah Mays
Joe Namath met Deborah Mays, an aspiring actress, while taking a voice class in 1983. She would later become his future wife and they would marry sometime in 1984. Even though Namath was 41 and Deborah was 22, they chose to marry each other anyway. The couple had two children, Jessica and Olivia Namath, which were both girls. Unfortunately, they divorced in 2000, because Deborah wanted more from Joe than just raising their children and playing golf. -
Sally Ride Becomes the First American Woman in Space
Sally Kristen Ride became the first American woman to trvel into outer space. Her mission was to operate the robot arm to retrieve a satellite on the Space Shuttle Challenger. She was also the first woman to do that and was the youngest American to ever enter space at the time at age 32, even though she was a woman astronaut. -
Namath is Inducted Into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Namath was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. He didn't necessarily get inducted because of his career statistics, which weren't the best. Also he wasn't inducted because of his bold guarantee in Super Bowl III. What he technically was inducted for was that he was the first professional quarterback in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards in a single season. -
The Persian Gulf War (1990-1991)
On August 2, 1990, the Persian Gulf War began when Iraq invaded Kuwait and took it over. The war was between Iraq and a group of 34 nations, including the United States. On January 1991, Operation Desert Storm was launched by the U.S.A. and Iraq was defeated. The war actually concluded on February 7, 1991. -
September 11 Attacks
On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four planes. One plane crashed near the White House, one plane by the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Approximately 3,000 people were killed on the attacks. In response, the United States and British military bombed Al-Qaeda camps and started the War in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. -
Hurricane Katrina Strikes the Gulf Coast
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast. It is recorded as the most destructive storm in terms of economic losses. Wind speed was recorded at an estimated 175 miles per hour. However, Katrina did not exceed the human losses in storms such as the Galveston Hurricane in the year 1900. -
Namath's Autobiography is Published
In November of 2006, Joe Namath's very own personal autobiography was published by NFL publishing. This was his only autobiography he had successfully written and had been published so far in his lifetime. In this book, he talked about his life from his point of view, or first person, and the different events that happened during it.
