The number 42 is hallowed in American sports. It was the number, after all, of legends like Jackie Robinson, James Worthy, and Ronnie Lott. (And if you’re a fan of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” you know that 42 is the answer to the “ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.” Heady stuff.) But 42 can also denote time — and 42 years ago today, a man who was only 24 (the inverse of 42) raced off the football field for the final time, baptized himself in the thick Louisiana swamp waters, and reached the arms of God.
“I can’t swim good,” Joe Delaney told strangers on his last day on Earth. “But I’ve got to save those kids. If I don’t come up, get somebody.”
He never came up.
According to the New York Times, a Louisiana construction company had dug out an artificial pond near a state park. The local kids found it irresistible — especially during the dog days of summer. Unfortunately, the dark, murky water was misleadingly deep. An inexperienced swimmer could get himself killed.
And on that day, three little boys — who didn’t know how to swim — jumped into the Louisiana pond.
They weren’t Delaney’s kids. He was resting and recuperating before the start of his third NFL season. One of the sport’s youngest, most promising stars, Delaney made the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 1981, and was hoping to bounce back in 1983, after recovering from a detached retina.
He was a married man with three small children of his own. His future, it seemed, was limitless.
But sometimes, God has other plans.
As the three kids entered the water:
Witnesses said Mr. Delaney, who was sitting alone nearby, hollered at the boys to be careful and not to wade too far into the water. Moments later, they said, the boys stepped off into deep water and went under.
Mr. Delaney, fully clothed, quickly jumped into the pond, the witnesses said. Mr. Delaney's body was the last one recovered from the pond, which covers about two acres, said Eddie Cox, a photographer with the Monroe News-Star-World. He added that it took two police divers about six minutes to locate Mr. Delaney.
One of the boys lived. The other two didn’t.
Neither did Joe Delaney.
And just like that… he was gone.
Emblazoned on his tombstone, preserved in time for all eternity, are the words, “Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for another.”
On this day, 42 years ago, the world didn’t just lose a football player. We lost an honest-to-God, all-American hero. He might’ve been a Chief, but he had the heart of a lion.
There stood a man!
And on this day, 42 years ago, Carolyn Delaney lost her beloved husband; her three little girls lost their daddy. And our world became a sadder, darker, colder place.
Theologians insist that the Lord works in mysterious ways — that the complexities of His Divine Plan necessarily defy earthly comprehension. Sometimes, the horrible, brutal, knee-buckling despair we feel is part and parcel of a greater wisdom — an all-knowing Divinity that operates on a level we cannot conceive.
But every now and then, it certainly seems that there’s more going on than meets the eye: On the 37th anniversary of Joe Delaney’s death, the Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years.
And Joe Delaney’s number was… 37.
Joe Delaney won’t be enshrined in Canton, Ohio. His career was too damn short to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But that’s okay.
He’s spending eternity somewhere far better.
God bless the legacy of Joe Delaney. What a man! What a hero!
Joe Alton Delaney
October 30, 1958 – June 29, 1983
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