Jack Kemp, football legend and public servant - Power Play - Interview

Parks & Recreation, August, 2003

Jack Kemp is the chair of the board of directors of USA Football, a national advocacy organization representing all levels of amateur football. USA Football was created last year by the National Football League and NFL Players Association to collaborate with youth and high school football programs and create alliances to further build the game. NRPA is among the organizations that USA Football works with.

Kemp began his professional football career in 1957. In 1962, he joined the Buffalo Bills and, as quarterback, led the team to consecutive AFL titles in 1964 and 1965. He co-founded the American Football League Players Association in the 1960s and was elected president of the association five times.

After his football career, Kemp represented the Buffalo area and western New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971-89. President George H. W. Bush selected Kemp to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1989. Kemp received the Republican Party's nomination for Vice President of the United States in 1996. Since then, he has led national campaigns for reform of taxation, Social Security and education. Kemp serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards, and is co-director of Empower America, a public policy and advocacy, organization he co-founded in 1993.

Parks & Recreation: Both community recreation facilities and USA Football's program will help more kids participate in sports. Why is this important?

Jack Kemp: We share a common need and desire to control our bodies. Recreation is a vivid description of our effort in sports and other interpersonal activities offered at recreation centers throughout the country. We re-create the world through our experiences, which helps us understand ourselves and others. Today more than ever, our children need places to engage friends and competitors in the physical world rather than the cyber-world that some use too frequently.

Parks & Recreation: When you were growing up, did you play sports in a recreation league? Did your kids?

Jack Kemp: My recreation league was the street in front of my family's home in California, but all of my children participated in organized recreation leagues. These opportunities are valuable for many reasons, one of which is that not many kids are playing in the streets anymore, for better or worse.

Parks & Recreation: When you were Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, did you see the importance of placing community centers and recreation centers in urban areas? "What sort of impact do these facilities have on communities? Do you feel they help reduce crime and violence while promoting health and community?

Jack Kemp: When I had the privilege of serving as Secretary of HUD kinder President Bush Sr., we were very active in supporting the organizations that built pride in and around public housing communities. Among the most important were and are recreation centers that serve as gathering places for young and old. I believe that ownership of property is a right, privilege and goal that needs to be pursued by us all, and at HUD we recognized the value in having recreation centers that served the community in a unique and fundamental way.