Sports

Football legend, Beaver Falls native Joe Namath turns 75

Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath (left) and WPXI Sports Director Alby Oxenreiter. (Photo submitted by Alby Oxenreiter)

Western Pennsylvania has churned out hordes of notable football players over the decades, but few are as iconic as Joe Willie Namath.

The Beaver Falls native and Pro Football Hall of Famer turned 75 on Thursday.

Namath, a 1961 graduate of Beaver Falls High School and one of six western Pennsylvania quarterbacks to be inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, delivered on perhaps the greatest guarantee in sports history.

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In January 1969, while lounging poolside at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, the New York Jets’ star quarterback doubled down on a prediction he had made the night before at a dinner at the Miami Touchdown Club.

In front of a media crowd, “Broadway Joe” guaranteed a win for the Jets over the heavily favored Colts in Super Bowl III. Several days later, that's exactly what happened, and Namath's legend was etched in stone.