Former Bobcat Jan Stenerud, a Hero in Super Bowl IV, Named One of NFL's 100 Best All-Time Players
1/27/2020 3:42:00 PM | Football
Stenerud and others will be honored at halftime of Sunday's game
With Mike Person's appearance in Super Bowl LIV as San Francisco's starting right guard on Sunday, we look at Montana State's ties to the National Football League and its championship game throughout the week…
BOZEMAN, Montana – For all the honors and awards and accompanying congratulations Jan Stenerud has received through the years, this is a phone call he didn't see coming.
"Roger Goodell called me in late October," Stenerud said last week, after the Kansas City Chiefs, the team he helped kick to victory in Super Bowl IV. "I knew right away it was him, I recognized the number," Stenerud said of the National Football League Commissioner. "I'd met him a few times, of course. He's always at the Hall of Fame. He said, 'This is Roger,' and I hesitated. He said, 'Roger Goodell,' and I said, 'I recognize your voice.' We talked a little bit, and he said, 'I've got some good news. As you know the league is 100 years old and one of the highlights is picking 100 players for the 100-year team. There are two kickers on the team, and you are one of them.'"
Stenerud's response was instantaneous. "That's remarkable," he remembers saying, and told Goodell, "'I really appreciate the call.'"
His selection as one of the top 100 NFL players of all-time truly is remarkable. He joins Adam Vinatieri as the squad's kickers. What's even more remarkable is the route Stenerud took to football glory. The native Norwegian arrived in Bozeman in the fall of 1961 on a ski scholarship. He had been an outstanding ski jumper in Norway, and followed countryman Tor Fageraas to Montana State. As a sophomore and junior he won Big Sky Championships in his event, claiming All-America honors by finishing fourth in the NCAA Championships both seasons.
In the fall of 1964, Stenerud took a break from his training of running the Gatton Field bleachers and was invited onto the field to boot the football with injured defensive back Dale Jackson, who doubled as the team's kicker. After showing a strong leg, but asked if it were legal to kick the ball with the side of his foot. Hungarian immigrant Pete Gogolak kicked was just breaking in as a 'sidewinder' for the Buffalo Bills, and when Stenerud approached the ball as a soccer player would, he began booming it. That caught the attention of Bobcat basketball coach Roger Craft, striding from Romney Gym to the Fieldhouse, and he reported what he'd seen to football coach Jim Sweeney.
After some cajoling from Craft, Sweeney tried him out, and Stenerud impressed immediately. He was ineligible to play football in 1964 so he suited up as a redshirt, but entered the 1965 season as Montana State's kicker. After regularly making field goals of 60 yards in practice, Stenerud became a sensation on campus. "Whenever the team got to the 50-yard line (the student section) would start yelling, 'Send in Jan!'" Stenerud said with a laugh. In October he kicked a 59-yard field goal against Montana, the longest kick in football history to that point. He finished the season 7-for-14 on field goals, modest numbers by today's standard by eye-popping in the 1960s.
He was drafted by the Chiefs in the AFL Futures Draft after the season, but returned to MSU to improve his draft stock with the NFL. As a senior he scored 82 points to set an NCAA kick-scoring record and was a key component on the Bobcats' Big Sky title team. The Sporting News named him an All-America as the top kicker in all of college football following the season, and after Atlanta picked him in the NFL Draft he opted to sign with Kansas City, which held his rights from the previous season's draft. It proved to be a fruitful season. The 1966 AFL Champions won that league's last title in 1969 by winning the championship game in Oakland, then drubbed the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl.
He excelled in that title game, kicking three field goals to give the Chiefs a 9-0 lead, and converting both of his extra points. Kansas City cruised to a 23-7 victory which Stenerud says reverberated throughout his career. "That's what they talk about (in picking all-time teams), and even in the Hall of Fame selection, did you (win a Super Bowl)? So it has a positive effect, even years later. But at the time we were just so thrilled about winning for our league and winning the game."
Stenerud quickly established himself as the NFL's top kicker, converting 373 field goals and scoring 1,699 points during his legendary career, both NFL records upon his retirement in 1985. He was First Team All-Pro four times and Second Team twice and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. Just over a month after the NFL honors him as one of its best 100 players at this year's Super Bowl – which features Stenerud's former team, the Kansas City Chiefs – he will be inducted into the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame in its inaugural class.
The members of the NFL 100 will be honored at halftime of Sunday's game.
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE TOP 100 PLAYERS OF ALL-TIME
KICKERS: Jan Stenerud, Adam Vinatieri
PUNTERS: Ray Guy, Shane Lechler
QUARTERBACKS: Sammy Baugh, Tom Brady, John Elway, Brett Favre, Otto Graham, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Johnny Unitas
RUNNING BACKS: Jim Brown, Earl Campbell, Dutch Clark, Eric Dickerson, Lenny Moore, Marion Motley, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, OJ Simpson, Emmitt Smith, Steve Van Buren
OFFENSIVE TACKLES: Roosevelt Brown, Forrest Gregg, Cal Hubbard, Walter Jones, Anthony Munoz, Jonathan Ogden, Art Shell
OFFENSIVE GUARDS: Larry Allen, Dan Fortmann, John Hannah, Bruce Matthews, Randall McDaniell, Jim Parker, Gene Upshaw
CENTER: Mel Hein, Jim Otto, Dwight Stephenson, Mike Webster
RECEIVERS: Lance Alworth, Raymond Berry, Larry Fitzgerald, Marvin Harrison, Elroy Hirsch, Don Hutson, Steve Largent, Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, Paul Warfield
TIGHT ENDS: Mike Ditka, Tony Gonzalez, Rob Gronkowski, John Mackey, Kellen Winslow
DEFENSIVE END: Doug Atkins, Bill Hewitt, Deacon Jones, Gino Marchetti, Lee Roy Selmon, Bruce Smith, Reggie White
DEFENSIVE TACKLES: Buck Buchanan, Joe Greene, Bob Lilly, Merlin Olsen, Alan Page, John Randle, Randy White
LINEBACKERS: Chuck Bednarik, Bobby Bell, Derrick Brooks, Dick Butkus, Jack Ham, Ted Hendrickson, Jack Lambert, Willie Lanier, Ray Lewis, Joe Schmidt, Junior Seau, Lawrence Taylor
CORNERBACKS: Mel Blount, Willie Brown, Darrell Green, Mike Haynes, Night Train Lane, Deion Sanders, Rod Woodson
SAFETIES: Jack Christiansen, Ken Houston, Ronnie Lott, Ed Reed, Emlen Tunnell, Larry Wilson
RETURNERS: Devin Hester, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson
#GoCatsGo
BOZEMAN, Montana – For all the honors and awards and accompanying congratulations Jan Stenerud has received through the years, this is a phone call he didn't see coming.
"Roger Goodell called me in late October," Stenerud said last week, after the Kansas City Chiefs, the team he helped kick to victory in Super Bowl IV. "I knew right away it was him, I recognized the number," Stenerud said of the National Football League Commissioner. "I'd met him a few times, of course. He's always at the Hall of Fame. He said, 'This is Roger,' and I hesitated. He said, 'Roger Goodell,' and I said, 'I recognize your voice.' We talked a little bit, and he said, 'I've got some good news. As you know the league is 100 years old and one of the highlights is picking 100 players for the 100-year team. There are two kickers on the team, and you are one of them.'"
Stenerud's response was instantaneous. "That's remarkable," he remembers saying, and told Goodell, "'I really appreciate the call.'"
His selection as one of the top 100 NFL players of all-time truly is remarkable. He joins Adam Vinatieri as the squad's kickers. What's even more remarkable is the route Stenerud took to football glory. The native Norwegian arrived in Bozeman in the fall of 1961 on a ski scholarship. He had been an outstanding ski jumper in Norway, and followed countryman Tor Fageraas to Montana State. As a sophomore and junior he won Big Sky Championships in his event, claiming All-America honors by finishing fourth in the NCAA Championships both seasons.
In the fall of 1964, Stenerud took a break from his training of running the Gatton Field bleachers and was invited onto the field to boot the football with injured defensive back Dale Jackson, who doubled as the team's kicker. After showing a strong leg, but asked if it were legal to kick the ball with the side of his foot. Hungarian immigrant Pete Gogolak kicked was just breaking in as a 'sidewinder' for the Buffalo Bills, and when Stenerud approached the ball as a soccer player would, he began booming it. That caught the attention of Bobcat basketball coach Roger Craft, striding from Romney Gym to the Fieldhouse, and he reported what he'd seen to football coach Jim Sweeney.
After some cajoling from Craft, Sweeney tried him out, and Stenerud impressed immediately. He was ineligible to play football in 1964 so he suited up as a redshirt, but entered the 1965 season as Montana State's kicker. After regularly making field goals of 60 yards in practice, Stenerud became a sensation on campus. "Whenever the team got to the 50-yard line (the student section) would start yelling, 'Send in Jan!'" Stenerud said with a laugh. In October he kicked a 59-yard field goal against Montana, the longest kick in football history to that point. He finished the season 7-for-14 on field goals, modest numbers by today's standard by eye-popping in the 1960s.
He was drafted by the Chiefs in the AFL Futures Draft after the season, but returned to MSU to improve his draft stock with the NFL. As a senior he scored 82 points to set an NCAA kick-scoring record and was a key component on the Bobcats' Big Sky title team. The Sporting News named him an All-America as the top kicker in all of college football following the season, and after Atlanta picked him in the NFL Draft he opted to sign with Kansas City, which held his rights from the previous season's draft. It proved to be a fruitful season. The 1966 AFL Champions won that league's last title in 1969 by winning the championship game in Oakland, then drubbed the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl.
He excelled in that title game, kicking three field goals to give the Chiefs a 9-0 lead, and converting both of his extra points. Kansas City cruised to a 23-7 victory which Stenerud says reverberated throughout his career. "That's what they talk about (in picking all-time teams), and even in the Hall of Fame selection, did you (win a Super Bowl)? So it has a positive effect, even years later. But at the time we were just so thrilled about winning for our league and winning the game."
Stenerud quickly established himself as the NFL's top kicker, converting 373 field goals and scoring 1,699 points during his legendary career, both NFL records upon his retirement in 1985. He was First Team All-Pro four times and Second Team twice and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1991. Just over a month after the NFL honors him as one of its best 100 players at this year's Super Bowl – which features Stenerud's former team, the Kansas City Chiefs – he will be inducted into the Big Sky Conference Hall of Fame in its inaugural class.
The members of the NFL 100 will be honored at halftime of Sunday's game.
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE TOP 100 PLAYERS OF ALL-TIME
KICKERS: Jan Stenerud, Adam Vinatieri
PUNTERS: Ray Guy, Shane Lechler
QUARTERBACKS: Sammy Baugh, Tom Brady, John Elway, Brett Favre, Otto Graham, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Johnny Unitas
RUNNING BACKS: Jim Brown, Earl Campbell, Dutch Clark, Eric Dickerson, Lenny Moore, Marion Motley, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, OJ Simpson, Emmitt Smith, Steve Van Buren
OFFENSIVE TACKLES: Roosevelt Brown, Forrest Gregg, Cal Hubbard, Walter Jones, Anthony Munoz, Jonathan Ogden, Art Shell
OFFENSIVE GUARDS: Larry Allen, Dan Fortmann, John Hannah, Bruce Matthews, Randall McDaniell, Jim Parker, Gene Upshaw
CENTER: Mel Hein, Jim Otto, Dwight Stephenson, Mike Webster
RECEIVERS: Lance Alworth, Raymond Berry, Larry Fitzgerald, Marvin Harrison, Elroy Hirsch, Don Hutson, Steve Largent, Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, Paul Warfield
TIGHT ENDS: Mike Ditka, Tony Gonzalez, Rob Gronkowski, John Mackey, Kellen Winslow
DEFENSIVE END: Doug Atkins, Bill Hewitt, Deacon Jones, Gino Marchetti, Lee Roy Selmon, Bruce Smith, Reggie White
DEFENSIVE TACKLES: Buck Buchanan, Joe Greene, Bob Lilly, Merlin Olsen, Alan Page, John Randle, Randy White
LINEBACKERS: Chuck Bednarik, Bobby Bell, Derrick Brooks, Dick Butkus, Jack Ham, Ted Hendrickson, Jack Lambert, Willie Lanier, Ray Lewis, Joe Schmidt, Junior Seau, Lawrence Taylor
CORNERBACKS: Mel Blount, Willie Brown, Darrell Green, Mike Haynes, Night Train Lane, Deion Sanders, Rod Woodson
SAFETIES: Jack Christiansen, Ken Houston, Ronnie Lott, Ed Reed, Emlen Tunnell, Larry Wilson
RETURNERS: Devin Hester, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson
#GoCatsGo
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