Marking the 42nd anniversary of his death, we celebrate the NFL hero, Joe Delaney. 

Joe was a promising young player. The RB played for the Kansas City Chiefs and won AFC Rookie of the Year accolades alongside a pro-bowl invitation during his first season in 1982. He helped to contribute to their first winning season in a decade. 

During the off-season, he returned home to Louisiana where one fateful day, he met up with some friends in Chenault Park. Whilst there, he came across three children who had gotten into distress in a man made pond and, without thinking, jumped in to save them. 

Delaney could not swim but he managed to save one of the children. Another was taken to the local hospital but sadly died. Delaney and the third child died at the scene. 

This act of selflessness and heroism as recognised posthumously by President Reagan who awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal. His legacy lives on through the Hunt Family Foundation and GEHA funded "Joe Delaney Learn to Swim Program." His jersey number, 37, has unofficially been retired by the Chiefs and a statue has been erected in the park where the tragedy struck. 

In the words inscribed on his memorial: "Greater love has no man than to lay his life down for another."