Publisher's Notebook

Here’s an item in honor of the Minnesota Vikings, who may or may not be headed to the Super Bowl after this weekend.

Alan Page, a defensive tackle, was one of the Vikings’ vaunted “Purple People Eaters” of the 1960s and ’70s. During that stretch, Minnesota made the Super Bowl four times, all losses. Page, who played for Minnesota from 1967 to 1978, was an All-Pro nine times. After hanging up his spikes in 1981 (he spent his last few seasons as a member of the Chicago Bears), he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame seven years later.

That’s his football story. A Notre Dame alumnus, he envisioned a life after the gridiron. He attended law school at the University of Minnesota, earning his degree in 1978. He was an associate at a Minneapolis firm for a few years, then in 1985, he went to work for the attorney general’s office.

In 1992, he was elected to the Minnesota Supreme Court, the first African-American to serve on that bench. He has been reelected twice since; he comes up on the ballot again this fall.

One of the greatest golfers ever quit at the age of 28 to be a lawyer.

Who, you ask? Bobby Jones, who in 1930 became the only golfer ever to record a “Grand Slam” in a single year.

A native of Atlanta, Jones was a golf prodigy, winning his first tournament at age 6. He kept playing and winning. He earned an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, where he was on the golf team. He earned a degree from Harvard. He went to law school at Emory, then passed the Georgia bar exam after only one year of study.

He had a pretty good year in 1930, winning four of the sport’s major tournaments at the time– the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the British Open and the British Amateur – a feat tagged a Grand Slam.

Maybe he figured there was nowhere to go but down, so he quit to concentrate on his law practice in Atlanta. He continued to play in the Masters over in Augusta every year until 1948, when bad health caught up with him. He died in 1971 at the age of 69.

The town of St. Andrews, Scotland, home of the “Old Course,” named Jones a “Freeman of the City” in 1958. To this day, the University of St. Andrews and Emory University, Jones’ law alma mater, have a close relationship. Every year, four students from St. Andrews spend a year of study in Atlanta, and four Emory students go to Scotland, all expenses paid both ways.

A tip of the golf cap to Steve Emmert for suggesting Jones for this column. And thanks likewise to Jim Segall, who pointed out Jones remained an amateur; item above corrected accordingly