DID YOU EVER WONDER? New patches show up on football uniforms
I tuned in to the Broncos/Oakland game last week and was puzzled. Why did the Broncos have a "GU" patch on their uniforms? Turns out the Raiders did as well. Can you help?
Glen B.
• All NFL teams will be wearing the "GU" patches this season to honor Gene Upshaw, who had represented all the players as the popular executive director of the NFL Players Association for 25 years. Upshaw, 63, died Aug. 20 of pancreatic cancer.
Although he had been a Hall of Fame guard with the team Broncos fans love to hate, the Raiders, he became the face of all players as their union representative. He led the association through a strike in 1987 and into free agency.
"Gene Upshaw did everything with great dignity, pride and conviction," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said when told of Upshaw's death.
Upshaw was a first-round draft choice for the Raiders in 1967, played more than 15 seasons and was in three AFL and seven AFC championship games and Super Bowls II, XI and XV.
He was chosen for seven Pro Bowls.
ANOTHER PHONE BOOK: While I was away, another phone book was deposited on my front porch. It is called The Buzz and I couldn't find out who is responsible for it because if I could, I would deliver it to their doorstep and deposit it for them. I am so sick of getting phone books I don't want and have NEVER ASKED FOR. I could scream. Help!
Mary Goulet
• The Buzz is produced by Impact Directories, a Boise, Idaho-based phone book-publishing company. The telephone number in Boise is 1-208-375-2220, but the company probably will ask you to request in writing that you not receive its directory. You can make the same request of other telephone companies as well.
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Puzzled about something in our area? Send questions to linda.navarro@gazette.com with "Column Question" in the subject line; mail to "Did You Ever Wonder?," P.O. Box 1779, Colorado Springs 80901; blog at gazette.com.
