Russ Francis, a former NFL tight end who played 13 professional seasons and made three Pro Bowls, died Sunday in a plane crash at Lake Placid Airport, according to multiple reports.
He was 70 years old.
Francis had become a co-owner of Lake Placid Airways in July, and Sunday, he was in a plane with Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s senior vice president Richard McSpadden when it experienced problems shortly after takeoff around 4 p.m., according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and a statement from the AOPA.
The AOPA wrote that Francis and McSpadden, who also died in the crash, tried to return to the airport but didn’t reach the runway.
Francis was born in Kailua, Hawaii, and attended college at Oregon before the Patriots selected him in the first round of the 1975 NFL Draft.
He was also drafted by the Royals in the MLB Draft.
But his path to the NFL wasn’t always clear-cut, and he reportedly only played one full season at Oregon.
As a senior, he opted to not play football with the Ducks and took lessons three times a day to earn his flight license in weeks, according to a Washington Post story from 1977.
He still ended up with an opportunity in the NFL, though, and Francis finished with 393 catches for 5,262 yards and 40 touchdowns across seven-plus with the Patriots and five-plus with the 49ers.
In January 1985, Francis won Super Bowl XIX alongside legendary Niners quarterback Joe Montana.
“This guy was a superstar before Tua, before Marcus, and really put Hawaii on the map,” Rich Miano, who played in the NFL at the same time, told Hawaii’s KHON News. “… He was Hawaii football. He had that appreciation, that love for Hawaii that, to me, is so special.”
Francis was also a professional wrestler and broadcaster at different stages of his life, according to multiple outlets.
But earlier this year, Francis pursued his passion for flying and was selected as the winning bid to purchase Lake Placid Airways, which offers charter and scenic flights, according to its website.
Francis told the Lake Placid News in August that he thought that his bid was selected because of his commitment to keeping the service local after he and co-owner Rives Plotts “fell in love with this place.”
“I came from Hawaii,” Francis said in the same interview. “That got overdeveloped really fast when I was growing up.”
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