Jack Snow (American football)
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| Date of birth | January 25, 1943 |
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| Place of birth | Rock Springs, Wyoming, U.S. |
| Date of death | January 9, 2006 (age 62) |
| Career information | |
| Position(s) | Wide receiver |
| College | Notre Dame |
| NFL draft | 1965 / Round: 1 / Pick 8 |
| Career history | |
| As player | |
| 1965–1975 | Los Angeles Rams |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Pro Bowls | 1967 |
| Career stats | |
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Jack Thomas Snow (January 25, 1943 – January 9, 2006) was an American football player who played wide receiver at the University of Notre Dame from 1962 through 1964 and with the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL from 1965 to 1975.
Biography
Early years
Snow was a three-sport star at St. Anthony Boys'High School, Long Beach, California who totaled 10 varsity letters while competing in football, baseball and basketball. He was an All-state football receiver during his senior season and went on to post a .458 batting average as an All-city baseball performer.
College
In his senior year at Notre Dame, he was a consensus All-American and finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1964 behind the winner, Notre Dame quarterback John Huarte. 1964 was coach Ara Parseghian's first season with Notre Dame, and Parseghian made several key position switches in 1964, including moving Snow from flanker to split end. Snow lost 15 pounds to compete more effectively as a split receiver. Notre Dame's passing offense in Parseghian's first season helped produce 27 team and individual records, including five set by Snow for receptions (60), receiving yards (1,114) and touchdown catches (9) in a season; receiving yards in a game (217, vs. Wisconsin); and career receiving yards (1,242). He broke the previous record for receiving yards in a game (208, by Jim Morse in a 1955 game vs. USC), more than doubled the old record for receiving yards in a season and scored 19 more receptions in one season than any previous Notre Dame player. Snow also averaged nearly 37 yards per kick as the 1964 team's punter.
NFL career
The Minnesota Vikings selected Snow in the first round (he was the number 8 pick overall) in the 1965 NFL Draft but shortly traded him to the Rams. Snow broke into the Rams' starting lineup in his rookie 1965 season and remained there. In 1967 he averaged a career-high 26.3 yards per reception and scored eight touchdowns on his 28 receptions. He was named to the West squad in the NFL Pro Bowl, but did not appear in the game.
Snow gained a reputation for catching the long pass from quarterback Roman Gabriel. He remained the Rams' starter at split end until 1974-1975, when he divided time with fellow receivers Lance Rentzel, Harold Jackson, and Ron Jessie. He finished his professional career with 340 receptions and 45 touchdowns; his 6012 career receiving yards ranked 30th in NFL history.
Acting and broadcasting career
Snow appeared in the 1969 motion picture Marooned (starring Gregory Peck). He appeared as himself in the 1969 episode "Samantha's Shopping Spree" of the television series Bewitched. He played Cassidy in the comedy Heaven Can Wait.
Following his NFL career, Snow went into the real-estate business with college roommate Bob Arboit, in Newport Beach, California. He returned to the Rams as a receivers coach in 1982 under Ray Malavasi. In 1992 he joined Los Angeles sports-talk radio station KMPC (now KSPN as an analyst for Rams radio broadcasts and a daily program host. He followed the team to St. Louis in 1995, and was one of a handful of old L.A. Rams still employed by the Rams in the 2005 season, 11 years after their departure from southern California.
Death
Snow developed a staph infection in November 2005 and died at age 62 as a result of complications. He is buried at All Souls Cemetery in Long Beach, California.
Family
Snow's son J.T. Snow is a retired Major League Baseball 1st baseman for the San Francisco Giants and Anaheim Angels. Following the senior Snow's death, the junior Snow changed his uniform number in his father's memory while playing for the Boston Red Sox. Later J.T. helped establish The Jack and J.T. Snow Scientific Research Foundation in his father's honor for Wolfram syndrome research at Washington University's School of Medicine (WUSM) to raise awareness of and funding for research that one day will stop the progression of Wolfram syndrome. Wolfram syndrome is a rare disease that presents itself as juvenile diabetes that results in the degradation of the nerve cells in the eyes, ears and brain and in 60% of the cases, causes death before the patient’s 30th birthday. The nine-year-old daughter of Stephanie Snow Gebel, and granddaughter/niece of Jack and J.T. Snow, Raquel, was diagnosed with Wolfram syndrome in the fall of 2010. The Snow Foundation still supports research being done at WUSM, in addition to research that is being conducted in France, Denmark, Spain, Great Britain and Estonia. The Foundation also provides support for the patients and families that are dealing with Wolfram syndrome. The Snow family and the Foundation have, in a very short time, raised significant funds and awareness about this disease, in hopes of one day providing critical information that will be used to halt the progression of juvenile onset diabetes.
External links
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