Mick Tingelhoff a Pro Football Hall-of-Famer?Finally

Video: Tingelhoff Unsung Hero with a Hard-Nosed Attitude

Lively Crowd Honors 2015 Gold Jacket Enshrinees in Canton

Tingelhoff the 16th Undrafted Member of Pro Football HOF

“Mick Tingelhoff wasn’t a Minnesota Viking. Mick Tingelhoff is the Minnesota Viking.”

                                                      – Fran Tarkenton, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback

Growing up in Alliance, Neb., the kids I played with loved the Minnesota Vikings and, in particular, Fran Tarkenton, the team’s scrambling quarterback. I pretended like I was Tarkenton in the backyard or a vacant lot, escaping, diagnosing and waiting for close friends to get open. Tarkenton was a universally chosen and highly respected hero in our group because he was fun, flashy and flamboyant.

But Tarkenton was not, by any stretch of the imagination, our favorite Viking. That honor was, is and always will be Mick Tingelhoff, the Lexington, Neb., native who started one season at Nebraska, went undrafted in the NFL, yet still ended up being one of pro football’s ultimate Iron Men, making 240 consecutive starts at center.

Only two players in NFL history started more games than Tingelhoff – quarterback Brett Favre (297) and Jim Marshall, Tingelhoff’s Viking teammate, who made 270 starts. Thursday night, Mick Tingelhoff, 75, received his long awaited, coveted Gold Jacket, the crowning glory for every player who receives pro football's highest honor – a permanent place in Canton's fabled Hall of Fame.

Nebraska’s Pro Football Hall-of-Famers Will Almost Double

In a fairy tale stroke of irony, Tingelhoff, who has waited patiently through 32 years of eligibility to achieve that definitive milestone, will be enshrined Saturday night in Canton, Ohio. He will join another legendary Husker offensive lineman – 43-year-old All-America Nebraska guard Will Shields, the Kansas City Chiefs’ perennial All-Pro (pictured below putting on the Gold Jacket Thursday night in Canton). On Friday, Huskers.com will profile Shields' journey into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Saturday's induction ceremony will be only the fifth time in Pro Football Hall of Fame history that two players from the same university will be jointly honored.

Three Huskers in Pro Football Hall of Fame: Chamberlin, Lyman, Brown

For those who don’t examine or evaluate pro football like they analyze and scrutinize college football, understand these very simple facts: In the history of Nebraska football, only three Husker players have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Guy "The Champ" Chamberlin, Roy "Link" Lyman and Bob "Boomer" Brown. That’s it, Husker fans...1, 2, 3, that’s how elementary it’s going to be until Tingelhoff and Shields are officially enshrined at Saturday night’s ceremony on the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Field, following a grand parade in downtown Canton and a major autograph session inside the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

What a day for a daydreamer that will be. Nebraska’s three previous Pro Football Hall of Fame honorees were selected in 1964 (Lyman), 1965 (Chamberlin) and 2004 (Brown). Lyman was a left tackle, Brown a right guard and Chamberlin a halfback. Adding Tingelhoff, a center, and Shields, a guard, four of Nebraska’s five Pro Football Hall-of-Famers are offensive linemen, and three – Chamberlin, Brown and Shields – will be the Huskers’ only combined inductees into both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

Returning to Canton for First Time, Tarkenton Will Present Tingelhoff

Thirty-seven years after making his last snap to Tarkenton, Tingelhoff – a five-time All-Pro and co-captain on Bud Grant's four Super Bowl teams – will join his old quarterback roommate and Bud Grant, his former head coach "for eternity in Canton, Ohio", according to Mark Craig, a Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. The 46-member committee took 12 minutes and 53 seconds to discuss Tingelhoff and correct what many considered to be a decades-long oversight.

Making Tingelhoff a part of the Hall-of-Fame's 2015 class represented the first time the Nebraska native had even been presented to the committee for discussion. "I never thought it would happen but here I am," Tingelhoff told Craig. "It's great. I know my family is happy, so everything is good...really good."

"I'll tell you what it means to me," Tarkenton said. "I'm happier about Mick getting into the Hall of Fame than I was when I went into the Hall of Fame class in 1986. I haven't been back since I went in. But with Mick going in, I'll be the first one there." Tarkenton also will present his former center, lifetime friend and colleague. "Out of all of us who went into the Hall of Fame, Mick was always the most respected and deserving. He was the greatest center there ever was. He was our leader. Hell, Mick IS the Minnesota Vikings."

Tingelhoff Grew Up Working on the Family's 160-Acre Farm Near Lexington

All of us who grew up in Nebraska's Panhandle loved Tingelhoff because his roots were not that far from ours. In 1940, he was the sixth child and second son to grow up working on the family's 160-acre farm near Lexington, Neb. "I remember milking cows in the morning in the dark," he told the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "We didn't get electricity until I was a senior in high school."

Tingelhoff was a center/linebacker on a prep team that went 0-9 as sophomore and 9-0 two years later, giving up only one touchdown all season while winning the state championship. He never missed a game in high school, at Nebraska or in the NFL. He was that tough. "Dad thought football was a waste of time," Tingelhoff said. "Mom and Dad were from Germany. They weren't happy that I got a scholarship to Nebraska. They wanted me to stay on the farm."

Tingelhoff played in the same offensive line in Lexington with Monte Kiffin, another former Husker who went on to become Nebraska's defensive coordinator, plus making other stops throughout college and professional football. "Mick very well could have quit football," Kiffin said. "When we didn't win a game, we all thought about quitting, and Mick was this farm kid whose Dad wasn't a football fan at all. He had to be extra tough to stick with it."

After Meeting, Marrying His Wife Phyllis, Tingelhoffs Look Back, Ahead

There is no doubt about the fruits of hard work while growing up on the farm. "Mick's parents were older," wife Phyllis told Craig for Tingelhoff's Pro Football Hall of Fame profile. Married for 54 years, Phyllis, pictured above, pointed out how life was different then. Mick's parents didn't even see him play a high school football game. "They didn't have the machinery you see today," she said. "I think they were too busy working."

According to Phyllis, Mick worked before school, after practice and throughout the off-season. "Mick worked hard as a young boy," she said. "I think that was great for him. Nobody lifted weights back then. But Mick was just so naturally strong from working so hard on the farm from such an early age."

Tingelhoff paid a price for his devotion to the game, even though he never missed a game at any level. His short-term memory is failing, but he battles his way through it. Saturday night, Tingelhoff will make a short speech and fortunately, Tarkenton will be by his side or behind him in his first trip back to Canton in three decades.

I think I know why this trip was the exception for Tarkenton. Mick Tingelhoff is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame...finally.

Truth, honor and justice prevail!

 

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