{"id":67669,"date":"2019-06-29T08:39:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T12:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=67669"},"modified":"2021-03-20T10:29:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T14:29:06","slug":"joe-delaney-memoriam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/06\/29\/joe-delaney-memoriam\/","title":{"rendered":"In Remembrance of Joe Delaney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On June 29, 1983, <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/nfl-teams\/chiefs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> running <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/D\/DelaJo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Delaney<\/a><\/strong> heroically passed away while trying to save two three young children from drowning. Delaney said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/vault\/1983\/11\/07\/620071\/sometimes-the-good-die-young\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he wasn\u2019t a good swimmer<\/a>, but he knew he had to act if he was to save those children. He heroically managed to save one of the children, but the other two passed away with Dulaney. With the Kansas City Chiefs dealing with some player character issues, there\u2019s never been a better time to look back at one of the true heroes and good guys in NFL history.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Joe Delaney, In Memoriam<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>By all accounts, Delaney was a generous, loving, and selfless man. Back on June 29<sup>th<\/sup>, Delaney was at Critter\u2019s Creek Amusement Park when he noticed three children screaming for help. Delaney, who wasn\u2019t the best swimmer, immediately went out into the water and tried to rescue the boys. Despite not knowing how to swim, Delaney brought one child back to shore without harm. He got a second back to land, but the child tragically was in critical condition and didn\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n<p>Delaney\u2019s sacrifice did not go unnoticed, as 3,000 people came to his Memorial Service on July 4<sup>th<\/sup>. Then-president <strong>Ronald Reagan<\/strong> awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal on July 15<sup>th<\/sup>, saying that \u201cHe made the ultimate sacrifice by placing the lives of three children above regard for his own safety. By the supreme example of courage and compassion, this brilliantly gifted young man left a spiritual legacy for his fellow Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Delaney\u2019s legacy still lives on in Arrowhead, as nobody has worn 37 since Delaney\u2019s tragic death. Additionally, Kansas City posthumously inducted Delaney into the Chiefs\u2019 ring of honor in 2004. To honor his memory, a group of Chiefs\u2019 fans formed the \u201c37Forever Foundation\u201d. This organization teamed with the American Red Cross to give swimming lessons to underprivileged children.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"SoRZIm84TcZApj3HD_l6Hw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/837839688\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'SoRZIm84TcZApj3HD_l6Hw',sig:'4xzUsjAozaxnqqSl4qumNPlWcYyOPMdIOZJ83xeHlxA=',w:'594px',h:'420px',items:'837839688',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>36 years ago today, Kansas City Chiefs running back Joe Delaney sacrificed his life to save three drowning children at an amusement park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":67670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,16],"tags":[7466],"class_list":["post-67669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-chiefs","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-news"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}