Kurt Knoff

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Kurt Knoff

Date of birth:	April 6, 1954 (1954-04-06) (age 54)
Place of birth:	East Grand Forks, Minnesota
Career information
Position(s):	Safety
College:	Kansas
NFL Draft:	1976 / Round: 2 / Pick: 43
Organizations
As player:
1976 1977-1978 1979-1982	Denver Broncos Houston Oilers Minnesota Vikings
Stats at DatabaseFootball.com

Kurt Knoff is a former American football safety who played in the National Football League for the Houston Oilers and the Minnesota Vikings.

A graduate of East Grand Forks High School in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, Knoff was named the Minnesota High School Athlete of the Year in 1972. He attended the University of Kansas, excelling in football. He was a 1975 All-American, who also played both baseball and basketball for the Jayhawks. He was named to KU’s All-Time Best Football Team by the Lawrence Journal-World.

Selected in the 2nd Round of the 1976 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos, he did not sign with the team due to health concerns related to his knee. He eventually signed with the Houston Oilers, and played for the team in 1977 and 1978. He was picked up by the Minnesota Vikings during the 1979 season, and intercepted a pass on his very first play with the team. Knoff spent a total of four years with the Vikings, retiring before the start of the 1983 season.

During his professional football career, Knoff spent his summer pursuing an MBA degree from the University of Kansas. He was able to parlay this degree into a successful post-football career as a commercial real estate broker in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

[edit] Sources:

Ballew, Bill. Tough Enough to be Vikings: Minnesota's Purple Pride from A to Z. Asheville, North Carolina: Old Norse Publishing, 1999. (page 192)
Black, Sam. "Preparation Pays Off for Former Viking Knoff." Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. June 21, 2004
Toplikar, Dave. "KU's All-Time Best Football Team." Lawrence Journal-World