Eugene Thurman Upshaw, Jr.
“Uptown Gene”
(August 15, 1945 – August 20, 2008)
He was an American football player for the Oakland Raiders and executive director of the National Football League Players’ Association (NFLPA). In 1987, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is also the only player in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl in three different decades with the same team.
While on vacation in mid-August 2008 at his home in Lake Tahoe, he began to feel ill. His wife Terri noticed that his breathing was labored, so she convinced him to go to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on August 17. On August 20, just five days after his 63rd birthday, Eugene Upshaw died. His wife Terri and his sons Eugene III, Justin, and Daniel by his side.
In 2011, his son Eugene Upshaw III filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County Circuit Court regarding how the will was handled at the time of his father’s death, stating his father was too ill to be able to understand the document he was signing. The case was settled out of court prior to the trial, but the facts of the case created more conflict between retired players and the NFLPA, with several prominent retired players/advocates lashing out at Upshaw and his family for a $15 million payment in his will and citing a large number of disabled and broke veterans who had no resources; however, the reporting also showed that the $15 million was a deferred payment from Upshaw’s long tenure as the NFLPA head and the money was taken out of his salary during that time and served as a de facto pension separate from the issues that were causing controversy.
Honors
Upshaw was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987. And in 1996, Upshaw was also inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2004, the NCAA Division II sports information directors awarded the first Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year award. It is presented each year during the weekend of the NCAA Division II Football Championship by the Manheim (Pennsylvania) Touchdown Club.