Jeremiah Francis Kane, 81, salesman and athlete

Jeremiah Francis Kane, 81, of Yardley, a manufacturer's representative and athlete, died of heart and kidney failure Tuesday at his son Jeremiah's home in West Chester.

Though he weighed only 21/2 pounds at birth and later had scarlet fever, Mr. Kane grew up to be a star football player. He was an all-Catholic lineman for the West Philadelphia Catholic High School football team that won Catholic League titles in 1944 and 1945. In 1996, fifty years after his graduation, he received West Catholic's Golden Burr Award for his contributions to the school.

Mr. Kane earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University on a football scholarship in 1950. But knee injuries kept him from trying out for the Los Angeles Rams and pursuing a professional football career.

Instead, he coached the Oreland Mustangs, a youth football team, and became an accomplished golfer, his family said.

Mr. Kane had several holes-in-one at Trenton Country Club. He served on club committees and was captain of the Pennsylvania team competing in the club's Oaklands Cup tournament - a competition between members from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He was an even better card shark than he was a golfer, his family said, and split his gin rummy winnings with his wife.

Mr. Kane worked in sales for aluminium and steel companies before becoming a manufacturer's representative for the industry. In recent years he was a sales representative for his son Justin's firm, Kane Steel & Iron.

Since 1955, he had been married to Esther Louise "Weezie" Burgoyne Kane. They shared the same circle of friends and eventually began dating. "I married him for his sense of humor," she said.

In addition to his wife and sons, Mr. Kane is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth Perry, and 10 grandchildren.

Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. today and from 9:30 to 10:45 tomorrow at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 752 Big Oak Rd., Morrisville.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. John, where Mr. Kane attended daily Mass, taught religion classes, and was a eucharistic minister, lector, and usher. Burial will be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham.