Pat Rogers-Thompson, who worked for more than three decades as the public relations secretary for the San Diego Chargers, died Monday at her El Cajon home, her family said. She was 90.
Rogers-Thompson ed the club on April 1, 1963 and worked through the 1995 season before retiring. Among many other things, she was instrumental in beginning the popular Chargers Blood Drive in 1979 after kicker Rolf Benirschke became ill.
As a girl Rogers lived in Hawaii where her father was a Navy radioman. She recalled as a 10-year-old winning a dance contest with a sailor on the night of Dec. 6, 1941. The next morning, she waved as usual at planes ing overhead her home near Pearl Harbor, not knowing they were from Japan.
“It was a day I’ll never forget,” Rogers told Tom Krasovic of the Union-Tribune in 1991. “Not in my entire life. I may forget everything else in this entire world, but I’ll never forget that.”
She began working for the Chargers during the early days of the American Football League when the team was headquartered at the Lafayette Hotel on El Cajon Boulevard.
As Nick Canepa of the U-T recounted in 1995, there were five coaches, four secretaries, an ant, a business and ticket manager.
“Very small,” Rogers-Thompson told Canepa. “We were in a hotel, so every office had its own bathroom. We used ours for storage.
“The newness of the league made it exciting. We had to prove the AFL would be great. Lance Alworth, John Hadl, Keith Lincoln — all of them were great guys. And, compared to today’s salaries, they practically played for nothing. Everyone was so eager to make the league go.”
Bill Johnston, who ed the team’s PR department in 1979 and worked until the team moved to Los Angeles in 2017, said “Pat kind of took me under her wing when I had a little corner of her office when I started at the Chargers as a 21-year-old kid. She was like a second mom to me.
“We worked together in the public relations department for 16 years, and she was not only the backbone of the PR office, but really the entire front office. She seemingly knew everything about the history of the organization. Her institutional knowledge — even after she retired — was priceless.
“And even after she turned 90, Pat was still Pat, with that same energy and zest for life and fun that made her so special.”
Rogers-Thompson is survived by her son, Patrick Rogers, of El Cajon; seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Plans for a memorial service are pending.
