There are caricatures, and then there are caricatures that spring so high and so vibrantly that they take on a life not only of their own but an eternal life of their own.
Take, for example, Joe Kapp, the former Cal quarterback and coach who became famous yet again this weekend -- this time for getting into a fight with another 70-plus man at the Grey Cup luncheon honoring former Canadian Football League players.
No, not an argument. A fight. An actual throw-hands-and-mean-harm fight. Which of course most of you know because you have YouTube. This is the first truly viral thing two 70-year-olds have done since Winston Churchill got mad at Joseph Stalin after World War II.
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We bring this up to admire Kapp for holding onto his baddest-dude-in-the-room fixation well past its normal shelf life, and for standing against perceived wrongs even in their fifth decade of life.
On the other hand, youre 73 years old, and knock it off. People are looking.
The backstory, briefly:
Kapp was the quarterback for the British Columbia Lions in the 1963 Grey Cup when Angelo Mosca, who was playing for Hamilton, hit BC running back Willie Fleming with a shot that many people thought was dirty and drove Fleming from the game. Hamilton won, 21-10, and Kapp apparently never forgot.
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Kapp apparently never forgets.
Mosca, who later made his fame as a professional wrestler, went to say hello to Kapp, who offered a cheerful Go ---- yourself in response. Then, when the two were called to the dais to remember the Fleming hit for the people gathered in the room, Kapp apparently took a flower from the table and shoved it into Moscas face.
Hilarity ensued, including the fight, and according to reporters at the luncheon Kapp relating a story of how Fleming later bought a dog, named it Angelo, and beat it daily.
In sum, they are still less than friendly, and in 48 years, when theyre both 121, theyll still be less than friendly, only less able to do something about it.
But the caricature of Kapp as the meanest ogre in the valley, and the man with the longest and most inflexible memory, is enhanced, maybe even perpetually. You dont get much more Joe Kapp than that, and now the people who remembered him as he was at Cal half a century ago have something in common with the now generation.
They both know what the name Joe Kapp means. A guy who never lets anything go.
Ray Ratto is a columnist for CSNBayArea.com.