William Dean Jessup

Earlier this month, the city of Long Beach lost one of its greatest football players when Poly alum Bill Jessup passed away on Jan. 3 at the age of 85.

“He was a well-known player from the city who had a great career,” said longtime Press-Telegram sportswriter Al Larson. “Everybody always had high praise of Bill — he was from the old days, the leather helmets days of football.”

Jessup is a Hall of Famer at Long Beach Poly, Long Beach City College and with the Long Beach Century Club.

Jessup played end for Poly in the post-World War II years when the Jackrabbits were languishing in mediocrity, but that didn’t stop him from excelling. After an All-CIF prep career, he went on to LBCC, where he starred at tight end and defensive back in the 1947 season, before continuing on to USC, where he played for three years.

Jessup’s star turn came in the NFL, however, after the San Francisco 49ers drafted him in 1951. He would play with the team from 1951-58 as a receiver and a punter and then spend a season with the British Columbia Lions in 1959. He’s likely remembered fondly there, too, for a miracle touchdown catch that put the Lions in the CFL playoffs for the first time ever.

He finished his pro career in 1960 with the AFL’s Denver Broncos, before retiring back to Long Beach.

Jessup and his wife, Yvonne, had two daughters, Teri and Kathy, whom they raised in Long Beach. Jessup was a well-known lifeguard in those years, becoming fast friends with another famous Long Beach footballer-turned-lifeguard, John Olszewski.

“He was a sweet, kindhearted man,” Teri said of her father. “We didn’t really know that much about his career, because he never really talked or bragged about it.”

For Wilson students like Teri and Kathy, having a big-time Poly footballer as a dad wouldn’t necessarily have been a bragging point anyway. “I didn’t really think it was cool until later in life. But we did see him being interviewed on the news once, and that was something different,” Teri laughed.

Though he didn’t talk much about his career, Jessup did have one of the all-time great football stories. The only break in his professional football career between 1951 and 1960 was the ’53 season, when he sat out a year to fulfill his commitment to the Navy.

Jessup, who was stationed in San Diego, played for the San Diego Navy team during that season. But one weekend, after defeating the Camp Pendleton Marine team on a Saturday, he hopped a train northbound, and played the next day for the 49ers against the Rams at Kezar Stadium.

Unfortunately for Jessup, an admiral on the base happened to have the radio tuned to the game. “The big wigs heard about it and he got in some trouble for that one,” Teri said.

Jessup lived for a time in Leisure World, and then stayed with Teri at her homes in Huntington Beach and Westminster, before moving into an assisted living facility a year ago.

Services are planned for noon Jan. 23 at Westminster Memorial Park.

By Mike Guardabascio, Press-Telegram

Posted: 01/17/15,