Herman Wedemeyer

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Herman Wedemeyer
Date of birth: May 20, 1924
Place of birth: Hilo, Hawaii
Date of death: January 25, 1999 (aged 74)
Place of death: Honolulu, Hawaii
Career information
Position(s): Running Back
College: St. Mary's College
NFL Draft: 1947 / Round: 1 / Pick 9
(By the Los Angeles Rams)
Organizations
 As player:
1948
1949		 Los Angeles Dons (AAFC)
Baltimore Colts (AAFC)
Stats at DatabaseFootball.com
College Football Hall of Fame

Herman John Wedemeyer (born May 20, 1924 in Hilo, Hawaii; died January 25, 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii) was an American actor, football player, and politician. He is best known for portraying 'Sergeant/Detective "Duke" Lukela' on the crime drama Hawaii Five-O (1972-1980).

Wedermeyer, a running back, played college football for the St. Mary's College Galloping Gaels in Moraga, CA. In 1945, he finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979. Wedemeyer was Hawai'i's first consensus All-American football player. He bore the colorful nicknames 'Squirmin' Herman,' 'The Flyin' Hawaiian,' 'The Hawaiian Centipede,' and 'The Hula-Hipped Hawaiian.'

Wedemeyer was a first-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference in 1948. Despite leading the AAFC in punt return yardage that year, he was waived by the Dons. He was then signed by the AAFC Baltimore Colts (NOT the same franchise that moved to Indianapolis in the 1980s), with whom he played in 1949 before retiring from professional sports for good.

In 1968, Wedemeyer was elected to the Honolulu City Council as a Republican. In 1970, he was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives as a Democrat, winning re-election in 1972.

Herman was the brother of Charlie Wedemeyer, a former Michigan State football player who gained fame when, as a football coach at Los Gatos High School, he contracted Lou Gehrig's Disease and continued to coach for many years, despite his handicap. He is the subject of a television movie called Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story.

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