John Thomas Gordy, Jr. (July 17, 1935 – January 30, 2009) was an American professional football player for 11 years from 1957 to 1967.
[1] Gordy played his final season of high school football at lineman for the former Isaac Litton High School (now closed) in the Inglewood neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, winning the 1952 Clinic Bowl, and the Nashville Interscholastic League AA Division.
Their star player was Johnny Majors, who served as Gordy's alternate captain (and went on to become a legendary coach at the University of Pittsburgh and at Tennessee).
Among other things, the union demanded higher minimum salaries, independent arbitration, and more money for the player's pension fund.
He had been the driving force of the NFLPA negotiating team which included, among others, players King Hill, Ernie Green, Bob Vogel, and Dave Robinson.
[6][3][11] Shortly after ratifying the collective bargaining agreement, he was forced to retire from the NFL due to a lingering knee injury.
[6] "Participatory journalist" George Plimpton stated that Gordy was the inspiration for his second book (of three) about professional American football, Mad Ducks and Bears.
Plimpton initially met Gordy in 1960 while doing early research for what would become his first pro football book, Paper Lion, and was told by Gordy that in his opinion there was an obvious wide market for a book about football line play, consisting of young men and boys currently playing those positions and older men who had done so in the past, together forming a potential readership of millions.
Gordy, whose football nickname was "Bear" due to his hirsuteness, was able to interest his erstwhile training camp roommate, Alex Karras ("Mad Duck") in the project as well, although the book was not published until 13 years after this initial meeting.
Gordy created and led FCA Huddle groups in gang-riddled areas and high schools of Los Angeles, such as South Central and in Santa Anita.
[16] By the time Gordy died, nearly every single high school in Southern California had an FCA group on their campus.