Gene Upshaw
*Gene Upshaw was born on this date in 1945. He was a Black football player and union administrator.
Eugene Thurman Upshaw, Jr. was born in Robstown, Texas, and he was the son of Eugene and Cora Riley Upshaw. His father was an employee of an oil company, and his mother was a domestic worker. After high school, Upshaw graduated from Texas A&I University, Kingsville, with his B.S. in 1968. He did additional studies at California State University in 1969 and Golden Gate University Law School in 1982. During college (1967), he married Jimmye Hill; they divorced, and he married Teresa Buich in 1986.
After college, he played football as a guard for the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League and the National Football League for 16 years. Upshaw played in three Super Bowls: in 1967, 1976, and 1980. He also played in three AFL Championship Games, seven American Football Conference title games, one AFL All-Star game, and six NFL Pro Bowls. Upshaw is the only player in Pro Football history to play in three Super Bowls with the same team in three decades. He was also an active bargaining committee member for the National Football League Players' Association (NFLPA) throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.
He led the NFLPA in its unsuccessful strike in 1987 and through years of anti-trust litigation against the league, including a brief period in which the NFLPA became a professional association rather than a union, that ended with the union's acceptance of a salary cap in return for free agency and an enhanced share of league revenues for the union's members. Until his death, he was the Executive Director of the Association. In 2006, he alienated many retired players. 325 former AFL and NFL players receive minimal retirement benefits. Gene Upshaw died on August 21, 2008, of cancer. He had three children: Eugene III (from his first marriage), Justin, and Daniel (from his second marriage).
