Gene Upshaw {{{Caption}}} Date of birth August 15, 1945 Place of birth Robstown, TX Date of death Position(s) Offensive Guard College Texas A&M - Kingsville NFL Draft ] / Round {{{DraftedRound}}} AFL Draft 1967 / Round 1/ Pick 17 Pro Bowls AFL All-Star 1 time NFL Pro Bowl 6 times Awards Honors NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, NFL 1970s All-Decade Team Retired #s Records Statistics Pro Football Reference Statistics NFL.com Statistics CBS.com Statistics DatabaseFootball Statistics ESPN Statistics Sports Illustrated Team(s) 1967-1969 1970-1981 AFL Oakland Raiders NFL Oakland Raiders Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1987 Eugene Thurman Upshaw Jr. (born August 15, 1945 in Robstown, Texas) is a former football offensive guard who played for the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League and the NFL for sixteen years after graduating from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He played in three Super Bowls in the 1967, 1976 and 1980 seasons; he also played in one title game in the American Football League and nine in the American Football Conference one AFL All-Star game and six NFL Pro Bowls. Upshaw is currently the only player in NFL history to play in 3 Super Bowls with the same team in 3 different decades. He was an active member of the bargaining committee for the National Football League Players' Association (NFLPA) throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. He led the NFLPA in its unsuccessful strike in 1987 and through years of anti-trust litigation against the league, including a brief period in which the NFLPA became a professional association rather than a union, that ended with the union's acceptance of a salary cap in return for free agency and an enhanced share of league revenues for the union's members. He remains the President of the Association in 2006, when he alienated many retired players. 325 former AFL and NFL players receive minimal retirement benefits. When they attempted to have the league and the Association consider their plight, Upshaw responded: "I don't work for them. They are not union members and they have no vote."
Upshaw is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha the first intercollegiate fraternity established for African Americans.
