Gene Upshaw

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Gene Upshaw

Date of birth	August 15, 1945 (age 61)
Place of birth	Robstown, Texas
Position(s)	Offensive Guard
College	Texas A&M - Kingsville
AFL Draft	1967 / Round 1/ Pick 17
Career Highlights
Pro Bowls	AFL All-Star 1969 NFL Pro Bowl 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978
Honors	NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, NFL 1970s All-Decade Team
Stats
Statistics	CBS.com DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1967-1969 1970-1981	AFL Oakland Raiders NFL Oakland Raiders
Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1987

Eugene Thurman Upshaw Jr. (born August 15, 1945 in Robstown, Texas) is a former football offensive guard who played for the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League and the NFL for sixteen years after graduating from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He played in three Super Bowls in the 1967, 1976 and 1980 seasons; he also played in one title game in the American Football League and nine in the American Football Conference one AFL All-Star game and six NFL Pro Bowls.

Upshaw is currently the only player in NFL history to play in 3 Super Bowls with the same team in 3 different decades. In 1999, he was ranked number 62 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.

He was an active member of the bargaining committee for the National Football League Players' Association (NFLPA) throughout the late 1970s and early 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. He remains the President of the Association in 2006, when he alienated many retired players. 325 former AFL and NFL players receive minimal retirement benefits. When they attempted to have the league and the Association consider their plight, Upshaw responded: "I don't work for them. They are not union members and they have no vote."

Upshaw is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha the first intercollegiate fraternity established for African Americans.

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 (Pa.) Touchdown Club.