WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Jack Kemp got a medical exemption in 1961 that allowed him to avoid active duty as an Army reservist and continue playing professional football, his office confirmed Monday.
Kemp, who played professional football for seven seasons, was a private in an Army reserve unit in San Diego that on Oct. 15, 1961, was ordered to active duty during the Berlin crisis, The Sacramento Bee reported.
The California newspaper cited medical records it had obtained to show the congressman from New York was not called to active duty at the time.
John Buckley, a spokesman for Kemp's campaign, confirmed the report.
'The standards for active duty in the Army are rigid and Kemp did not pass them,' Buckley said. 'He had a separated shoulder and variety of ailments. He did play football that year, receiving Novocain shots.'
Kemp, 52, who has developed a reputation as a hawk on defense matters during his 17-year congressional career, said he did nothing to avoid a call-up.
'I didn't request that (the exemption),' he told the Bee. 'Like all people, I wanted to do what was right. I must admit I was married and had a child, but I certainly would've done whatever I was called to do.'
Kemp said the physical examination that excused him from active duty was the Army's idea. Army medical records show Kemp, a reservist from 1958 to 1962, was discharged from the reserves 10 months later because of the injury.
Military doctors reported swelling and a muscle spasm in Kemp's left shoulder and said 'voluntary range of motion' of the left arm was limited to 80 degrees, about chin level.
Kemp's roommate for the 1961 season, Hall of Fame tackle Ron Mix, recalled the injury.
'He had a chronically separated shoulder and he literally had to be shot up with painkillers to play,' Mix told the Bee. 'As crazy as it sounds, he was not fit to serve in the Army but fit for football, where the philosophy was play with pain.'
Mix, also a member of the 977th Transportation Army reserve unit, was denied a deferment from the active duty call-up although he was the sole support for his mother.
Another fellow reservist, who requested anonymity, told the Bee he also was called up despite his having government agencies write letters on his behalf. The former reservist recalled general resentment that Kemp was excused while he still played football.
J.W. Best, a Scottsdale, Ariz., physician, told the newspaper he was on the team of military doctors that first examined Kemp in San Diego. Best said there was no pressure from outside sources to give Kemp special treatment.
'There were questions even then about how could he be unfit (for the Army) but still play football,' he said. 'But I told them, 'Look, it's not a matter of life or death on that football field.''
