Jack Kemp, who became the Secretary for Housing and Urban Development under George H. W. Bush, said that when he started out in life, all he ever wanted to be was a football player,." He played pro for 13 years. Kemp recalls the encouragement he received from Payton Jordan, his coach at Occidental College in Los Angeles: The coach called me into his office and said, "Of all the people on this team, I really think you have it. I want you to work just as if you were a pro football player."

He described his elation when he left that office, he said, "I would have run through a brick wall for Coach Jordan." But several years later, at a reunion, he was talking to a bunch of the guys and found out that the coach had told all his teammates that same thing. He was was furious! But after reflection he calmed down. He says, "I realized that Coach Jordan had made every one of us a little bit better, had helped us to struggle a little bit harder, to reach our potential.