DICK BUTKUS

CHICAGO – Gale Sayers, the dazzling and elusive running back who entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite the briefest of careers and whose fame extended far beyond the field for decades thanks to a friendship with a dying Chicago Bears teammate, has died. Nicknamed “The Kansas Comet” and considered among the best open-field runners the game has ever seen, Sayers died Wednesday, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He earned his place as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”Sayers was a two-time All-American at Kansas and inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as well. “I played football a long time and I never saw a better football player than Gale Sayers,” said Hall of Fame tight end Mike Ditka, Sayers’ teammate from 1965-66. In presenting him at the ceremony, Bears founder George Halas said: “If you wish to see perfection as a running back, you had best get a hold of a film of Gale Sayers.