DETROIT (AP) — Greg Landry, the former Detroit Lions quarterback and assistant coach, has died. He was 77.
The Lions announced Landry's death on social media Friday. No cause of death was given.
“We join the NFL community in mourning the loss of former Lions quarterback and coach Greg Landry,” the team said in its posting.
Landry played in the NFL from 1968 to 1981 with the Lions and then-Baltimore Colts. After two seasons in the USFL, he returned to the NFL and played one game with the Chicago Bears. He threw for 16,052 yards in his NFL career with 98 touchdowns and 103 interceptions. He was also one of the best running quarterbacks in NFL history, gaining more than 2,600 yards with 21 TDs.
The Lions selected Landry with the 11th pick of the 1968 NFL draft out of Massachusetts. He played 11 seasons with the Lions, and had a career record of 40-41-3 with Detroit. His finest season in Detroit came in 1971, when the threw for 2,237 yards and 16 touchdowns and was a first-team All-Pro and made his only Pro Bowl.
In 1976, he earned the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award after passing for 2,191 yards and 17 TDs.
Landry was traded to Baltimore and played three seasons with the Colts, going 3-10-1. He then moved to the USFL and played one season each with the Chicago Blitz (1983) and the Arizona Wranglers (1984). He was an emergency starter for the Bears — against Detroit — in 1984.
Landry rejoined the Lions in 1995 as quarterbacks coach on the staff of head coach Wayne Fontes. Landry also held assistant coaching positions with Cleveland and Chicago in the NFL and at the college level at Illinois.
From Nashua, New Hampshire, Landry led UMass in passing for three seasons and was the team's top rusher and scorer in 1965 and 1967. He was inducted into the UMass Hall of Fame in 1980.
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FILE - Former Detroit Lions quarterback Greg Landry during NFL football training camp in Allen Park, Mich., Monday, July 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
FILE - Detroit Lions quarterback Greg Landry looks for Chuck Walton somewhere downfield during an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in Detroit, Nov. 26, 1970. (AP Photo/JMC, File)
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Companies that bring solar power to some of the poorest homes in Central and West Africa are said to be among the fastest growing on a continent whose governments have long struggled to address some of the world's worst infrastructure and the complications of climate change.
The often African-owned companies operate in areas where the vast majority of people live disconnected from the electricity grid, and offer products ranging from solar-powered lamps that allow children to study at night to elaborate home systems that power kitchen appliances and plasma televisions. Prices range from less than $20 for a solar-powered lamp to thousands of dollars for home appliances and entertainment systems.
Central and West Africa have some of the world’s lowest electrification rates. In West Africa, where 220 million people live without power, this is as low as 8%, according to the World Bank. Many rely on expensive kerosene and other fuels that fill homes and businesses with fumes and risk causing fires.
At the last United Nations climate summit, the world agreed on the goal of tripling the capacity for renewable power generation by 2050. While the African continent is responsible for hardly any carbon emissions relative to its size, solar has become one relatively cost-effective way to provide electricity.
The International Energy Agency, in a report earlier this year, said small and medium-sized solar companies are making rapid progress reaching homes but more needs to be invested to reach all African homes and businesses by 2030.
About 600 million Africans lack access to electricity, it said, out of a population of more than 1.3 billion.
Among the companies that made the Financial Times' annual ranking of Africa's fastest growing companies of 2023 was Easy Solar, a locally owned firm that brings solar power to homes and businesses in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The ranking went by compound annual growth rate in revenue.
Co-founder Nthabiseng Mosia grew up in Ghana with frequent power cuts. She became interested in solving energy problems in Africa while at graduate school in the United States. Together with a U.S. classmate, she launched the company in Sierra Leone with electrification rates among the lowest in West Africa.
"There wasn’t really anybody doing solar at scale. And so we thought it was a good opportunity,” Mosia said in an interview.
Since launching in 2016, Easy Solar has brought solar power to over a million people in Sierra Leone and Liberia, which have a combined population of more than 14 million. The company’s network includes agents and shops in all of Sierra Leone’s 16 districts and seven of nine counties in Liberia.
Many communities have been connected to a stable source of power for the first time. “We really want to go to the last mile deep into the rural areas,” Mosia said.
The company began with a pilot project in Songo, a community on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown. Uptake was slow at first, Mosia said. Villagers worried about the cost of solar-powered appliances, but once they began to see light in their neighbors’ homes at night, more signed on.
“We have long forgotten about kerosene,” said Haroun Patrick Samai, a Songo resident and land surveyor. “Before Easy Solar we lived in constant danger of a fire outbreak from the use of candles and kerosene."
Altech, a solar power company based in Congo, also ranked as one of Africa's fastest growing companies. Fewer than 20% of the population in Congo has access to electricity, according to the World Bank.
Co-founders Washikala Malango and Iongwa Mashangao fled conflict in Congo's South Kivu province as children and grew up in Tanzania. They decided to launch the company in 2013 to help solve the power problems they had experienced growing up in a refugee camp, relying on kerosene for power and competing with family members for light to study at night.
Altech now operates in 23 out of 26 provinces in Congo, and the company expects to reach the remaining ones by the end of the year. Its founders say they have sold over 1 million products in Congo in a range of solar-powered solutions for homes and businesses, including lighting, appliances, home systems and generators.
“For the majority of our customers, this is the first time they are connected to a power source,” Malango said.
Repayment rates are over 90%, Malango said, helped in part by a system that can turn off power to appliances remotely if people don't pay.
The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Yakubu Achiri fixes a car battery to his solar system at his house in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
A young man stands by a community radio station solar setup sponsored by a German NGO in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
A man sits in a community radio station powered by a solar setup sponsored by a German NGO in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
Solar torch lights are seen on the rooftop of a building in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
Yakubu Achiri holds a solar panel that he uses to power his light bulb at his house in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
A girl stands in front of a house connected to solar system in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
Yahya Alhassan tests a light bulb with a solar system at his home in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
Rukaya Tongdoo connects a torchlight to a solar powered radio outside her house in Gushegu northern, Ghana, Friday Sept 6, 2024. (AP Photos/Abdul Haqq Mahama)
This photo released by Easy Solar shows a man and his family watching television with a solar power in his house in Monrovia, Liberia, Saturday Aug. 26, 2023. (Muctarr Bah Mohamed/Easy Solar via AP)
This photo released by Easy Solar shows a large solar panels installation on a rooftop of an office building in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Tuesday Aug. 13, 2024. (Muctarr Bah Mohamed/Easy Solar via AP)
This photo released by Easy Solar shows a large solar panels installation on a rooftop of an office building in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Tuesday Aug. 13, 2024. (Muctarr Bah Mohamed/Easy Solar via AP)
