Mick Tingelhoff

Mick Tingelhoff

File:TingMi00 2019.jpg
No. 53
Position:	Center
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1940-05-22)May 22, 1940
Place of birth:	Lexington, Nebraska
Date of death:
Place of death:	Lakeville, Minnesota
Height:
Weight:
Career information
High school:	Lexington (Nebraska)
College:	Nebraska
Undrafted:	1962
Career history
Minnesota Vikings (1962–1978)
Career highlights and awards
NFL champion (1969) 6× Pro Bowl (1964–1969) 5× First-team All-Pro (1964–1966, 1968, 1969) 2x Second-team All-Pro (1967, 1970) Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor 50 Greatest Vikings Minnesota Vikings 25th Anniversary Team Minnesota Vikings 40th Anniversary Team Minnesota Vikings No. 53 retired
Career NFL statistics
Games played: 240 Games started: 240 Fumbles recovered: 13 Player stats at NFL.com
Player stats at PFR
Pro Football Hall of Fame

Henry Michael Tingelhoff (May 22, 1940 – September 11, 2021) was an American professional football player who was a center for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL) from 1962 to 1978. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015, his 32nd year of eligibility.

College career

Tingelhoff attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned three letters during his football career there, but did not become a starter until his senior season in 1961. He was a co-captain of that 1961 team, which had its biggest offensive output in over five seasons. Tingelhoff participated in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, and in the All-American Bowl after the regular season was over.

Professional career

After graduating from Nebraska, Tingelhoff entered the 1962 NFL Draft but was not drafted and instead signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent in 1962. He became their starting center during his rookie season and held that spot until he retired in 1978. He was an AP First Team All-Pro selection for the first of five times in 1964 and also began a streak of six straight Pro Bowl appearances (1964–1969) that season. In 1967, he was named First Team All-Pro by Newspaper Enterprise Association and UPI and Second Team All-Pro by the AP. In 1969, he was named the NFL's Top Offensive Lineman of the Year by the 1,000-Yard Club in Columbus, Ohio. In 1970, he was named First Team All-Pro by both the PFWA and Pro Football Weekly. He was also named Second Team All-Pro by Newspaper Enterprise Association. He was named First Team All-NFC for that season by the AP.

Tingelhoff was one of 11 players to have played in all four Vikings Super Bowl appearances in the 1970s, and is generally considered to have been the premier center of his era. At the time of his retirement he had started in the 2nd most consecutive games (240 games) in NFL history behind teammate Jim Marshall (270). He was inducted into the Vikings Ring of Honor in 2001 and has had his #53 retired by the franchise.

He is also a member of the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.

In 2011, Tingelhoff was named as that year's recipient of the Gerald R. Ford Legends Award. The award was presented to him during the 12th Annual Rimington Trophy Presentation banquet on January 14, 2012, at the Rococo Theatre in Lincoln, Nebraska. He died on September 11, 2021, from complications of Parkinson's disease and dementia.