The NFL has been playing games on Thanksgiving Day since the 1920s. On one Thanksgiving 56 years ago, a quarterback from New Mexico led his team to victory.
Joe Garcia Kapp was born in Santa Fe on March 19, 1938. His father, Robert, was the son of German immigrants. His mother, Florenscia Chavez Garcia, was of Nuevomexicano heritage.
When Joe was two years old, the family moved to Salinas, California, where they lived in housing projects for agricultural workers. The young Joe attended school with the children of other lettuce-pickers, and he said that there, he acquired the toughness that characterized his approach to life – and football.
“If a kid didn’t have machismo in the…neighborhoods…where I grew up, he had it tough,” Kapp told Sports Illustrated.
Joe attended the University of California, where he took the Golden Bears to the Rose Bowl in 1959. Although he was drafted by the NFL’s Washington franchise, Kapp went to play in the Canadian Football League, where he helped Calgary win the league championship. In 1967, Kapp joined the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings as a 29-year-old rookie.
Kapp’s fearless style won over his new teammates in Minnesota. He was a perfect fit on the team with a defensive line so renowned for their toughness that they were called “the purple people eaters.” The team itself was on the rise, and looking to dethrone the perennial NFL champion Green Bay Packers.
The 1969 Vikings rolled into Detroit for the Thanksgiving Day matchup on a nine-game winning streak. Amid a snowstorm, Minnesota blanked the host Lions, 27-0.
The Vikings went on to defeat the Browns in the NFL championship, and then represented the league in Super Bowl IV against the American Football League champion Kansas City Chiefs. In the last title game before the AFL merged into the NFL, Kansas City defeated Minnesota, 23-7. Despite the loss, the 1969 Vikings are still remembered as one of the best teams from that era. A NFL Films special, The Missing Rings: The 1969 MInnesota Vikings provides the most complete account of the season.
In 1970, a Sports Illustrated cover featured Kapp with the caption “The Toughest Chicano.” Following Kapp’s death in 2023, the Los Angeles Times’ Gustavo Arellano wrote a reflection on the lasting impact of Kapp, and that cover story.
Kapp never made it back to the Super Bowl. But after his playing career was over, he took his fighting spirit into conflict with the NFL in a lawsuit over the league’s treatment of players. Kapp also enjoyed a successful collegiate coaching run at his alma mater in the 1980s.
Kapp, who was posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), was also a plaintiff in the landmark 2011 class-action lawsuit centered on the league’s failure to acknowledge the long-term effects of concussions.
Today, Jim Plunkett is remembered as the first Hispanic starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl. But Kapp is remembered for being the first to lead his team to the big game. And he’s equally remembered for what in Spanish is called “ganas” - desire to compete, and desire to win.
For more about Kapp’s story, you can find this feature by Bay Area NPR member station KQED, an essay at Remezcla, and another feature at Monterey County Now. Also, for educators or parents wanting to teach Kapp’s story to young learners, Stanford University’s Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education has developed a lesson plan, Joe Garcia Kapp: Chicano/Latino Football Trailblazer.