Alan Page | |||||||||||||||
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 Page in 2020 | |||||||||||||||
| Associate Justice of theMinnesota Supreme Court | |||||||||||||||
| In office January 4, 1993 – August 31, 2015 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lawrence R. Yetka | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Natalie Hudson | ||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | Alan Cedric Page (1945-08-07)August 7, 1945 (age 80) Canton, Ohio, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||
| Children | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| Education | University of Notre Dame (BA) University of Minnesota (JD) | ||||||||||||||
| Profession |
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| Awards | .svg) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2018) | ||||||||||||||
| Football career | |||||||||||||||
 Page in 1969 | |||||||||||||||
| No. 88, 82 | |||||||||||||||
| Position | Defensive tackle | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 245 lb (111 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school | Central Catholic (Canton, Ohio) | ||||||||||||||
| College | Notre Dame (1964–1966) | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1967: 1st round, 15th overall pick | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Alan Cedric Page (born August 7, 1945) is an American formerMinnesota Supreme Courtjudge and professionalfootball player for the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears. He was the NFL's MVP in 1971.[1] He was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.
Playingcollege football at theUniversity of Notre Dame, Page gained national recognition as adefensive tackle in theNational Football League (NFL) during 15 seasons with theMinnesota Vikings andChicago Bears. Following his retirement, he then embarked on a legal career. Page earned aB.A. in political science from theUniversity of Notre Dame in 1967 and aJ.D. from theUniversity of Minnesota Law School in 1978. Page served as an associate justice of theMinnesota Supreme Court from 1993 until he reached the court's mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2015.
Page was the first defensive player in NFL history to win theMVP Award and onlyLawrence Taylor has done it since. He is a member of both theCollege Football Hall of Fame (1993) and thePro Football Hall of Fame (1988), and is considered one of the greatestdefensive linemen ever to play the game.[2]
In 2018, PresidentDonald Trump awarded Page thePresidential Medal of Freedom.[3]
Page was born and raised inCanton, Ohio.[4] His parents stressed the importance of education and of doing his best regardless of what others did.[4] His mother died when he was 13.[4] Page said he wanted to become a lawyer when he was a child.[4]
Page graduated fromCanton Central Catholic High School in 1963, where he starred in several sports and excelled infootball. He worked on a construction team that erected thePro Football Hall of Fame, laying the groundwork for the building in which he would one day be enshrined.
After high school, Page played college football at the University of Notre Dame. As a senior, he led theFighting Irish to anational championship in 1966, and was a consensusAll-American.[1]
Page was presented with one of the 1992Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA) for achieving personal distinction since his graduation. In 1993, he was inducted into theCollege Football Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was awarded theNational Football Foundation Distinguished American Award.
In 1967, Page participated in theEast-West Shrine Game and 25 years later received the "Babe Hollingbery" Award for his performance as he was inducted to that game's Hall of Fame. Page was named to the Academic All-American Hall of Fame in 2001 and as such received theDick Enberg Award. Page also won theWalter Camp Alumni of the Year award in 1988.[5]
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Page was a first round selection (15th overall) in the1967 NFL/AFL draft by theMinnesota Vikings, for whom he played for 11 seasons, through1977. He is one of 11 Vikings to have played in all fourSuper Bowls (IV,VIII,IX,XI) in which the team appeared. Page joined theChicago Bears in1978 and played there forfour seasons and amassed an additional 40 sacks.
As a right defensive tackle, Page had an unusual 3-point stance, placing his left rather than his right hand on the ground. During his 15-year career, the Vikings won four conference titles and oneleague championship. Page was a member of the Vikings' "Purple People Eaters," a defensive line adept at sacking or hurrying the quarterback. Page played in 218 consecutive games without an absence (215 consecutive in the starting line-up), during which he recovered 22 fumbles, made 148½ sacks (Vikings-108½,[6] Bears-40), and scored three touchdowns (two on fumble recoveries and one on an interception return). He also recorded three safeties, the second most in NFL history, and blocked 23 kicks.[7] He set a career-high with 18 sacks in 1976 and is unofficially credited with five other seasons of 10 sacks or more.[8][9]
While in the NFL, Page earnedAll-Pro honors six times and made second-team all-league three additional times.[10] He was voted to nine consecutive Pro Bowls.[10] He was voted All-Conference 10 times, in 1968 and 1969 as All-Western Conference and in 1970 through 1977 and 1980 as an All-National Football Conference.[11]
In 1971 Page was named both theAP NFL Defensive Player of the Year (the first player to be named such) and the AP'sNFL Most Valuable Player.[12] Page was the first defensive player to be named MVP since the award's inception. Only one other defensive player,Lawrence Taylor, has ever received the award. Page was also voted theNEA NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1973.[13] In 2019 Page was chosen as a member of the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Page wasNational Football League Players Association player representative from 1970 to 1974 and in 1976–1977, and a member of the NFLPA Association Executive Committee from 1972 to 1975. He was one of the fifteenplaintiffs inMackey v. National Football League in which JudgeEarl R. Larson declared that theRozelle rule was a violation ofantitrust laws on December 30, 1975.[14][15] He was named to the Vikings' 40th Anniversary Team in 2000. Along the way, Page was named the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Week three times: week 9, 1967; week 8, 1968; week 13, 1971. In 1988 Page was further honored by his induction into thePro Football Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was ranked number 34 onThe Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranking Viking player. He received the NFL Alumni Career Achievement Award in 1995 for attaining success in his post-NFL career.
After his playing career he dabbled in the media, first as a commentator onTurner Broadcasting System covering theCollege Football Game of the Week series during the Fall of 1982 and then as a commentator onNational Public Radio in 1982–1983.[citation needed]
Long before Page's football career came to a close, he was laying the groundwork for his future role as a justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. While still playing for the Vikings, Page attended theUniversity of Minnesota Law School, from which he received a Juris Doctor in 1978. After graduating, he worked at the Minneapolis law firmLindquist and Vennum from 1979 to 1984 outside the football season. Page was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General in 1985, and soon thereafter promoted to Assistant Attorney General.[16]
In 1992, Page was elected to an open seat as an associate justice of theMinnesota Supreme Court, becoming the first African-American to serve on that court. He was reelected in 1998 (becoming the biggest vote-getter in Minnesota history), again in 2004, and for a final time in 2010: Minnesota hasmandatory retirement for judges at the end of the month in which they turn 70.
On January 7, 2009, Page was appointed by Chief JusticeEric Magnuson to select the three-judge panel that heard the election contest brought byNorm Coleman in the2008 U.S. Senate election.[17]
Alan and Diane Sims Page were married from 1973 until her death in 2018.[18] They met while she was working for General Mills and he was playing for the Minnesota Vikings.[19] Page is aCatholic.[20]
In 1988, the Pages founded the Page Education Foundation. It provides financial and mentoring assistance to students of color in exchange for those students' commitment to further volunteer service in the community, an idea suggested by their daughter Georgi. The Page Education Foundation has awarded grants to more than 7,500 students, who in turn have given more than 475,000 hours of their time to young children. Upon his retirement from the bench, Page plans to continue the foundation's work and find other ways to encourage students of color to be successful in school, especially by developing critical thinking skills.[21]
Page and his daughter Kamie Page have written four children's books:Alan and His Perfectly Pointy Impossibly Perpendicular Pinky (2013),The Invisible You (2014),Grandpa Alan's Sugar Shack (2017), andBee Love (Can Be Hard) (2020). Proceeds from the sales of these books support the Page Education Foundation.[22] Page is the subject of the authorized biographyAll Rise: The Remarkable Journey of Alan Page (2010).[23]
Page has a passion for running and runs on a regular basis. In 1979, he became the first active NFL player to complete a marathon. His running routine, which he took up while helping his wife quit smoking, is believed to have contributed to his dismissal from theMinnesota Vikings. His running schedule of 35–40 miles per week during the season, and 55 miles per week in the offseason, caused his weight to drop below that dictated by the Vikings.[24]
The Pages, instigated by Diane Page, also created theDiane and Alan Page Collection, an extensive collection of Americana andJim Crow-related memorabilia.[25] In 2012 Page appeared in a Minnesota-filmed episode ofPBS'sAntiques Roadshow with an 1865 banner commemoratingAbraham Lincoln.[26] In 2018 the banner and select items from the Diane and Alan Page Collection were exhibited at theMinneapolis Central Library in an exhibit called 'Testify', which coincided withSuper Bowl LII in Minneapolis.[27] The Testify exhibit, directed and produced by Georgi Page, returned to the library in 2023 with additionalTestify photographic displays appearing throughout the state at various regional libraries.
In June 2017, after a campaign initiated by students atAlexander Ramsey Middle School in Minneapolis, the school's name was changed to Justice Page Middle School.[28]
In 2018, Page contributed $1,000 to DemocratDean Phillips, who beat RepublicanUS RepresentativeErik Paulsen to winMinnesota's Third Congressional District seat.[29]
In November 2018, PresidentDonald Trump awarded Page thePresidential Medal of Freedom.[30]
In January 2020, Page andNeel Kashkari proposed amending a portion of theMinnesota State Constitution to read, "All children have a fundamental right to a quality education that fully prepares them with the skills necessary for participation in the economy, our democracy, and society, as measured against uniform achievement standards set forth by the state. It is a paramount duty of the state to ensure quality public schools that fulfill this fundamental right."[31]
On October 30, 2020, the North St. Paul/Maplewood/Oakdale School District (ISD 622) announced a new elementary school to be built at 2410 Holloway Avenue in Maplewood will be named Justice Alan Page Elementary School, scheduled to open in September 2022.[32]
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Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters:Macalester College, 1999;Winston-Salem State University, 2000;Gustavus Adolphus College, 2003;University of Notre Dame, 2004;Duke University, 2011;Hamline University, 2019.
Honorary Doctorates of Law:University of Notre Dame, 1993;St. John's University, 1994;Westfield State College, 1994;Luther College, 1995;University of New Haven, 1999;Carleton College, 2016.
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Associate Justice of theMinnesota Supreme Court 1993–2015 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
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