# Alan Page *American former Minnesota Supreme Court justice and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle* Alan Cedric Page (born August 7, 1945) is a former associate justice of the [[Minnesota Supreme Court]] and a former professional football player. He played defensive tackle in the National Football League for 15 seasons, eleven of them with the Minnesota Vikings and four with the Chicago Bears.[^1] Page sat on [[Minnesota]]'s highest court from 1993 to 2015, when he turned 70, the court's mandatory retirement age.[^1] Before that, in 1971, he became the first defensive player to be named the NFL's Most Valuable Player. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993. President Donald Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.[^1] ## Early life Page grew up in Canton, Ohio, where he was born. His mother died when he was 13. He finished at Canton Central Catholic High School in 1963. He was part of a construction crew that built the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the building into which he was later inducted.[^1] ## College football At the University of Notre Dame, Page was a consensus All-American as a senior. That year, 1966, the Fighting Irish won a national championship.[^1] He earned a B.A. in political science from Notre Dame in 1967.[^1] His later collegiate honors include induction into the College Football Hall of Fame (1993), an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award (1992), the Walter Camp Alumni of the Year award (1988), the Academic All-American Hall of Fame (2001) and the National Football Foundation Distinguished American Award (2005).[^1] ## Professional football The Minnesota Vikings took Page with the 15th overall pick, in the first round of the 1967 NFL/AFL draft. He stayed with the team through the 1977 season, then moved to the Chicago Bears in 1978 for four seasons.[^1] He played on the Vikings' "Purple People Eaters" defensive line. He is among 11 Vikings who appeared in each of the team's four Super Bowls (IV, VIII, IX and XI).[^1] In 1971 the Associated Press named Page both its NFL Defensive Player of the Year, the first recipient of that award, and its NFL Most Valuable Player. No defensive player had won the MVP award before him, and only Lawrence Taylor has won it since.[^1] Across his career he played 218 straight games without missing one, 215 of them as a starter. He is credited with 148½ sacks (108½ with Minnesota and 40 with Chicago), 22 fumble recoveries, three touchdowns, three safeties and 23 blocked kicks.[^1] He was named All-Pro six times and selected to nine consecutive Pro Bowls.[^1] ## Post-football career ### Broadcasting Page covered the *College Football Game of the Week* for Turner Broadcasting System in the fall of 1982. He also commented for National Public Radio in 1982–1983.[^1] ### Legal career Page studied at the [[University of Minnesota Law School]] while he was still a Vikings player. He received his Juris Doctor in 1978.[^1] From 1979 to 1984 he worked outside the football season at Lindquist and Vennum, a [[Minneapolis]] law firm. In 1985 he was named Special Assistant Attorney General and was promoted to Assistant Attorney General soon afterward.[^1] Page won an open associate-justice seat on the [[Minnesota Supreme Court]] in the 1992 election. Voters returned him in 1998, when he drew more votes than any candidate in Minnesota history to that date, and again in 2004 and 2010.[^1] On January 7, 2009, Chief Justice Eric Magnuson assigned Page to choose the three-judge panel for Norm Coleman's election contest over the 2008 U.S. Senate race.[^1] ## Personal life and community work Page was married to Diane Sims Page from 1973 until her death in 2018.[^1] In 1988 the couple founded the Page Education Foundation. Under its terms, students of color receive financial and mentoring support and in return commit to volunteer service in the community. As of the source's retrieval, the foundation reported grants to more than 7,500 students, who had given more than 475,000 hours of service to young children.[^1] With his daughter Kamie Page, he wrote four children's books, published between 2013 and 2020. Their proceeds go to the foundation.[^1] In 1979 he became the first active NFL player to complete a marathon.[^1] ## Professional accolades and memberships Page holds honorary doctorates in humane letters from Macalester College (1999), Winston-Salem State University (2000), Gustavus Adolphus College (2003), the University of Notre Dame (2004), Duke University (2011) and Hamline University (2019).[^1] His honorary doctorates of law come from the University of Notre Dame (1993), St. John's University (1994), Westfield State College (1994), Luther College (1995), the University of New Haven (1999) and Carleton College (2016).[^1] He has been a member of the American Law Institute since 1993, and of the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association since 1979. He belonged to the [[Minnesota State Bar Association]] from 1979 to 1985 and rejoined in 1990.[^1] He served on the [[Board of Regents]] of the [[University of Minnesota]] from 1989 to 1993 and on the board of directors of the Minneapolis Urban League from 1987 to 1990.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Alan Page* (retrieved 2026-10-26, revision 1371630567), CC BY-SA 4.0 — biographical record of Page's football, legal, broadcasting and community careers, honors and memberships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Page