[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 28258]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 28258]]

                              {time}  1900

                   HONORING THE LIFE OF WALTER PAYTON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.



  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
tremendous American, a great individual who was known perhaps best for 
being an outstanding football player. I guess he was, indeed, an 
outstanding football player, Walter Payton, who broke every record, set 
every record at the position which he played.
  Chicago is a great football town. For many years, our football 
fortunes were not where we wanted them to be. There was not much to 
cheer about. There was not much to bring the people out. But then, from 
a small historically black college came Walter Payton, a college that 
not many people necessarily knew about, had heard about, Jackson State. 
Here comes a young man with the grace and finesse of a wizard, one who 
could sneak and weave through lines no matter what the linemen looked 
like.
  While Walter set all of these records and we talk about his greatness 
as an athlete, if one ever had an opportunity to interact with him, to 
see him up close, to know the man, to talk with him, to understand him, 
then one saw much more than an athlete. One saw much more than a 
football player. One saw a role model. One saw a humaneness that 
existed. One saw just a good solid human being. Walter was well coached 
and was ready for the National Football League when he came.
  I always felt a tremendous sense of pride in his accomplishments 
because I, too, attended one of the historically black colleges or 
universities. We were in the same conference, and I must confess that 
Jackson State usually beat the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff 
more than we beat them.
  But also in that conference was Alcorn University, Grambling, 
Southern, Texas Southern, Prairie View, sometimes Wiley College, 
sometimes Bishop, sometimes Mississippi Valley.
  The real point is this is an opportunity to highlight the 
contributions of historically black colleges and universities, not only 
academically, not only athletically, but in a total sense of what they 
meant.
  Walter died needing an organ transplant. This is also an opportunity 
to urge all Americans who are able to participate in organ donation 
programs to help give and sustain life to those who might need an 
organ, especially if ours is no longer going to be useful to us.
  So, Walter, even in your death, you win out victorious because you 
raised the question, you raised an issue, and you helped America 
understand the need for a program, an organ donation program and 
policies which will assure that, when people need organs, they are in 
fact available. You will be in the other Hall of Fame. Rest easy.

                          ____________________