Richard William Kazmaier Jr. (November 23, 1930 – August 1, 2013) was an American businessman and

naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

from

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

through

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and was the winner of the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

Maxwell Award The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the college football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best all ...

, and the

Associated Press Athlete of the Year The first Athlete of the Year award in the United States was initiated by the Associated Press (AP) in 1931. At a time when women in sports were not given the same recognition as men, the AP offered a male and a female athlete of the year award to ...

Early life and career

Kazmaier was born November 23, 1930, in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, the only child of Richard and Marian Kazmaier. He graduated from Maumee High School in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in 1948. He played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

(four years),

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

(four years),

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

(four years),

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

(four years) and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

(one year) earning a

letter Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

each year in each sport. He was recruited by 23 colleges, most offering full scholarships. A halfback,

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

, and

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

, Kazmaier ended his career third all-time in Princeton history with over 4,000 yards of offense and 55

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s. As a senior in

, Kazmaier was a consensus All-American and won the

and the

. He was named Ivy League Football Player of the Decade in 1960 and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine ran his picture on its cover. He was the last Heisman Trophy winner to play for an Ivy League institution. Kazmaier graduated from Princeton in 1952 after completing a senior thesis titled "The Company and the Union: A Case Study". The

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

selected him in the

1952 NFL Draft The 1952 National Football League Draft was held on January 17, 1952, at Hotel Statler in New York. Selections made by New York Yanks were assigned to the new Dallas Texans. This was the sixth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick de ...

, but he declined to play pro football, instead going to

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. After spending three years in the U.S. Navy (1955–1957) and attaining the rank of

, he founded Kazmaier Associated Inc, an investment firm in

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...

Later life

Kazmaier served as a director of the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

, director of the Ladies Professional Golfers Association,

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...

of Princeton University, director of the Knight Foundation on Intercollegiate Athletics, chairman of the

President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition The President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition (PCSFN) is an American government organization that aims to "promote, encourage and motivate Americans of all ages to become physically active and participate in sports". It is part of the ...

under Presidents

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

and

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

and president of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. The NCAA gave him its Silver Anniversary Award. He also received the

National Football Foundation Distinguished American Award The National Football Foundation Distinguished American Award is among the highest offered by the National Football Foundation (NFF). Every year, the NFF & College Football Hall of Fame pays tribute to a select few with awards of excellence for ex ...

. In 2007, during a Maumee football game against Perrysburg, Kazmaier was honored by having his jersey number (#42) retired. He also donated his

to Maumee High School, where it is displayed inside a glass case in the main hallway. The stadium at Maumee High School is named in his honor. His daughter, the late

Patty Kazmaier-Sandt Patty Kazmaier-Sandt (January 8, 1962February 15, 1990) was a four-year varsity letter-winner for the Princeton University women's ice hockey team from 1981 through 1986. The Patty Kazmaier Award is named in her memory. Playing career Kazmaier wa ...

, was an All-Ivy member of the Princeton women's ice hockey team who died in 1990 at the age of 28 from a rare blood disease. The

Patty Kazmaier Award The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award is given to the top female college ice hockey player in the United States. The award is presented during the women's annual ice hockey championship, the Frozen Four. The award was first presented in 1998. The awa ...

, which was established by Kazmaier to memorialize his daughter, is given to the top woman college ice hockey player in the United States at the annual

Women's Frozen Four The annual NCAA women's ice hockey tournament—officially known as the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship—is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determin ...

NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

Personal

Kazmaier died on August 1, 2013, in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

from heart and lung disease at the age of 82.

Honors

*1950–1951:

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n in

*1951:

winner *1951:

winner *1951: Named outstanding college football player by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', the ''

Detroit Times Six different newspapers called the ''Detroit Times'' have been published in the city of Detroit; the most recent existed for six decades, from 1900-60. Overview *The first iteration of the ''Detroit Times'' was an antislavery bulletin only print ...

'', and the Cleveland Touchdown Club *1951:

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

Male Athlete of the Year *1951: Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Athlete of the Year *1960:

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

Football Player of the Decade *1962: Voted to the Greater Toledo Athletic Hall of Fame *1969: ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

''s 1950's All Decade Team *1989:

Walter Camp Distinguished American Award The Walter Camp Distinguished American Award is presented by the Walter Camp Football Foundation to an individual who has used his or her talents to attain great success in business, private life or public service and who may have accomplished tha ...

recipient *1993:

National Football Foundation The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote and develop amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and "developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the dr ...

's Distinguished American Award in 1993 *2007: Jersey number (#21) officially retired at Maumee High School in Kazmaier's honor. *2008: Jersey number (#42) officially retired at Princeton University in Kazmaier's (and

Bill Bradley William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. He served three terms as a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–1997). He ran for the Democratic Party's nomination f ...

's) honor. Bradley had grown up as a fan of Kazmaier and chose the number 42 in his honor.Tomlinson, Brett
"A number like no other; Princeton retires No. 42 in honor of Kazmaier ’52 and Bradley ’65"
''

Princeton Alumni Weekly The ''Princeton Alumni Weekly'' (''PAW'') is a magazine published for the alumni of Princeton University. It was founded in 1900 and, until 1977, it was the only weekly college alumni magazine in the United States. Upon changing to biweekly ...

'', November 19, 2008. Accessed September 13, 2021. "As children playing football on a churchyard in Crystal City, Mo., Bill Bradley ’65 and his friends took turns emulating collegiate gridiron stars. Bradley, for a Midwestern boy, had a curious favorite. 'Other kids wanted to be "Hopalong" Cassady of Ohio State,' he recalled. 'I wanted to be Dick Kazmaier 52of Princeton.' ... The two stars shared a common uniform number — 42 — worn, in the words of Director of Athletics Gary Walters ’67, 'with uncommon distinction.'"

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kazmaier, Dick 1930 births 2013 deaths American business executives American football halfbacks American football placekickers American football quarterbacks American men's basketball players American Red Cross personnel All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Heisman Trophy winners Maxwell Award winners Princeton Tigers football players Princeton Tigers men's basketball players Harvard Business School alumni People from Maumee, Ohio Sportspeople from Toledo, Ohio Players of American football from Ohio Basketball players from Ohio

Early life and career

Later life

Personal

Honors

See also

References

External links