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Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath turns 75 years old today. He figures he's entering the fourth quarter.
"I made a plan," Namath told the New York Post. "Being a quarterback, we're dealing with sports, we hear about making a plan and trying to move on with the plan.
"My plan was simple. I plan to live to be a hundred and, hopefully, further. When this dude said I'm getting old at 50, I said, 'No, no, no. This is halftime at 50. I'm planning on living to be 100.'
"You mention 75 -- that's the third quarter ending and the fourth quarter starting."
Before Namath became "Broadway Joe," the face of the American Football League and the issuer of the Super Bowl III guarantee, he played football for coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at Alabama.
Here's a look at Joe Namath from Alabama to today:
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Joe Namath was supposed to play football at Maryland. Or he might have signed with the Chicago Cubs organization. Instead he ended up at Alabama. Last year, he explained to Mike Francesa on WFAN in New York how that happened.
"There was a knock on the door one day," Namath said. "I happened to be home, my mother and I, just the two of us in the house. Knock on the door. I went to the door unsuspecting. I opened it, and there was this big man there with a very deep voice, nearly as deep as coach Bryant's -- he favored coach Bryant in that category, too, and coaching as well. But he introduced himself. My mother came up behind me, and he introduced himself to my mother as being from the University of Alabama.
"What had happened was I didn't pass my college boards at the University of Maryland, and the coach there, Tom Nugent, knew coach Bryant. So he called coach Bryant, and coach Bryant immediately sent Howard north. Alabama had come to recruit me during the basketball season that year, and I wasn't even thinking about where I was going to go to school at that time.
"But my mother liked the way that Howard Schnellenberger presented himself and she wanted me to go to college. And by gosh, she went upstairs, packed a bag that you could put under the seat in front of you on an airplane and said, 'Here you are, coach. Go ahead and take him.' Gave me a five-dollar bill and said, 'Take him.'"
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Because freshmen couldn't participate in varsity competition at the time, Joe Namath didn't get on the field for Bear Bryant until 1962, after quarterback Pat Trammell had led the Crimson Tide to an undefeated season and the consensus national championship in 1961. In the first of his three seasons as Alabama's starting quarterback, Namath led the Crimson Tide to a 10-1 record, with the only loss a 7-6 setback to Georgia Tech on Nov. 17, 1962.
The Yellow Jackets' Billy Lothridge made first-team All-SEC quarterback, with Namath the second-team selection, even though the Alabama QB led the SEC in passing yards with 1,192 passing yards, the most in the conference in nine seasons and a school single-season record. Namath also tied Harry Gilmer's single-season school record set in 1945 with 13 touchdown passes and broke the Alabama single-season record with 76 completions.
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In his junior season at Alabama, Joe Namath finished behind Georgia Tech's Billy Lothridge again for All-SEC first-team honors. Namath completed 63-of-128 passes for 765 yards and eight touchdowns in 1963 at Alabama went 9-2, losing to Florida and Auburn by a total of six points. He missed the Crimson Tide's victory over Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl after being suspended by coach Paul "Bear" Bryant for violating team rules.
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Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant walks away as trainers tend to Crimson Tide quarterback Joe Namath, who'd suffered a knee injury against North Carolina State at Denny Stadium on Oct. 10, 1964. As a senior, Namath earned All-SEC first-team recognition and led Alabama to a 10-0 regular-season record to earn the national championship, as determined by the wire-service polls. That was despite the first of Namath's knee injuries in the game against the Wolfpack. The knee injury caused Namath to miss two games and come off the bench in three other contests.
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Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant puts his arm around his quarterback Joe Namath in the dressing room after the Crimson Tide's loss to Texas in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1965. Alabama's 10-0 record in Namath's senior season earned the Crimson Tide a spot in the first prime-time Orange Bowl against Texas, which had lost once -- 14-13 to undefeated Arkansas on Oct. 17. The Longhorns pinned a 21-17 loss on Alabama. Namath entered the game for the first time at the 9:41 mark of the second quarter with the Tide down 14-0, but he ended up winning the game's MVP Award. He passed for 255 yards and two touchdowns. But his fourth-and-goal quarterback sneak in the fourth quarter was ruled to have come up short, although Namath always has maintained he got the football across the goal line. The loss didn't affect Alabama's national championship because the votes for the final polls were collected before the bowls.
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During his Alabama career, Joe Namath completed 203-of-374 passes for 2,714 yards with 27 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. Those numbers wouldn't fill up a season for many collegiate quarterbacks today, but Namath left Alabama owning the school career record for touchdown passes.
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Joe Namath, captain of the South for the 1965 Senior Bowl, gets a word of advice from Linda Felber of Cofax Wash., who is America's Junior Miss. A week after playing in the Orange Bowl, Namath was in Mobile for the Port City's annual all-star game. Namath is now in the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame.
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Joe Namath looks over his contract with the New York Jets with coach Weeb Ewbank. The St. Louis Cardinals selected Namath with the 12th pick in the NFL Draft, and the Jets picked the quarterback with the No. 1 choice in the AFL Draft. The Jets kept Namath out of the NFL with a three-year contract for $427,000 -- the richest, to that point, in pro football's history. It was the kind of money that made the owners in both leagues think about making peace, which they did, with a world-championship game between the league's two winners and a common draft paving the way to a full merger for the 1970 season.
The Sports Illustrated edition dated July 19, 1965, featured a look at "The Sweet Life of Swinging Joe." While "Swinging Joe" didn't become the nickname of the New York Jets rookie quarterback, the cover shot inspired the nickname that stuck -- "Broadway Joe," bestowed by Jets offensive tackle Sherman Plunkett.
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In 1967, Joe Namath became the first player in U.S. pro football history to throw for 4,000 yards in a season. Namath completed 258-of-491 passes for 4,007 yards as he led the AFL in each of those categories for the second straight season.
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New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath earned the AFL Player of the Year Award for the 1968 season as he led the New York Jets to the league championship.
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In the first two AFL-NFL World Championship games, the NFL's Green Bay Packers had taken care of the AFL's representative, beating the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 to cap the 1966 season and the Oakland Raiders 33-14 to end the 1967 season. The NFL's Baltimore Colts were supposed to do the same to the AFL's New York Jets in the game being billed as the Super Bowl. Adding spice to the contest, though, was a guarantee by Jets quarterback Joe Namath that his team would win the game.
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The New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts 16-7 to win Super Bowl III on Jan. 12, 1969, at the Orange Bowl in Miami. After an Alabama alumnus, Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, had won the MVP Award for the first two Super Bowl games, another former Crimson Tide standout, Jets quarterback Joe Namath, won the MVP Award for Super Bowl III.
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In 1969, quarterback Joe Namath again earned the AFL Player of the Year Award as he led the New York Jets to another East Division title in the AFL East. But the Kansas City Chiefs stopped the Jets 13-6 in the playoffs on their way to backing up New York's victory over the Baltimore Colts the previous year with a 23-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
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Miss Sunken Garden Karol Kelly visits New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath in the Lenox Hill Hospital on Dec. 27, 1966, in New York City. Namath was awaiting another operation on his right knee, part of a narrative of injuries for the QB. In 1970, Namath was able to play in only five games because of a broken wrist. In 1971, he played in just four games after suffering a left knee injury. In 1973, a separated shoulder limited Namath to six games. In the four seasons from 1970 through 1973, Namath missed 28 of 56 games. The one season he stayed on the field -- 1972 -- resulted in Pro Bowl recognition.
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New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath arrives with actress Raquel Welch at the 44th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on April 10, 1972.
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New York Jets quarterbacks Joe Namath (left) and Richard Todd at practice in 1976. Namath ended his NFL career with four games in 1977 for the Los Angeles Rams. The Jets had released Namath in favor of Todd, their 1976 first-round draft choice and a former Davidson High School and Alabama standout. Namath signed with the Rams and started the first four games, but he didn't play again after throwing four interceptions in a 24-23 loss to the Chicago Bears on Oct. 10, 1977 -- exactly 13 years after his first knee injury at Alabama.
Joe Namath began acting during his NFL career, appearing in the movies "Norwood" (above, with Glen Campbell), "C.C. and Company" and "The Last Rebel," as well as playing himself on the TV series "Here's Lucy" and "The Brady Bunch." In his first year in football retirement, Namath starred as coach Joe Casey in "The Waverly Wonders," but the TV series lasted only nine episodes. His most recent acting credit came in the 2015 movie "The Wedding Ringer," in which he, Ed "Too Tall" Jones and John Riggins appeared as football legends.
Joe Namath turned his status as a football star into a career as a pitch man for a variety of products. While he endorsed some of the usual items for an athlete, such as shoes, shirts and shaving cream (including a famous ad in which he was shaved by Farrah Fawcett), Namath also pitched pantyhose for Hanes.
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Joe Namath attends the graveside service for former Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham on Jan. 28, 1983.
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Joe Namath speaks at his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1985. He became the third former Alabama player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining Don Hutson and Bart Starr, and he went into the football shrine in the same class as the first former Auburn player to join the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Frank Gatski. Namath was a finalist for induction in 1983 and 1984 before making the final cut for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
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While being interviewed on the sideline during a "Sunday Night Football' game between the Jets and Giants on Dec. 20, 2003, Joe Namath twice told ESPN reporter Suzy Kolber "I want to kiss you," an incident that Kolber didn't address until a decade later for an HBO documentary about the quarterback. Namath was intoxicated. The embarrassing incident led Namath to enter rehab and stop drinking.
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Joe Namath receives his diploma from Dr. Robert Olin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa on Dec. 15, 2007. Namath received his Bachelor of Arts degree 42 years after leaving Alabama for pro football.
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Joe Namath speaks during a fundraiser for the Jupiter Medical Center in 2016. In 2012, with the effects of head trauma on football players making news, Namath had his brain checked at the medical center near his home in Jupiter, Florida. He didn't like what the doctors found, and he began undertaking hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In hyperbaric oxygen therapy, patients breathe pure, compressed oxygen. Namath said the treatment helped him, and he has been an avid speaker for the therapy and a fundraiser for further study since. The Jupiter Medical Center's neurological research facility is named in Namath's honor.
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Joe Namath gets ready for recording his part in "A Game for Life." A holographic image of Namath appears in the presentation at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where he uses a "magical chalkboard" to let greats from the game's past tell their stories for visitors.
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As he starts his fourth quarter century, Namath remains an ardent fan of Alabama and the Jets, a regular presence on TV talk shows and the frontman for the Joe Namath Foundation. The foundation focuses on children's charities and neurological research. "There's so many worthy causes," Namath has said about his foundation. "What we're doing is trying to spread it around and help humble causes that are worthy."
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.
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