Mark Kevin Kafentzis (born June 30, 1958) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

defensive back who played three seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

and Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts. He was drafted by the Browns in the eighth round of the

1982 NFL Draft The 1982 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 27–28, 1982, at the New York Sh ...

. He first enrolled at

Columbia Basin College Columbia Basin College (CBC) is a public community college in Pasco, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. The college offers English as a second language and General Educational Development (GED) ...

before transferring to the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa (University of Hawaii—Mānoa, UH Mānoa, Hawai'i, or simply UH) is a public land-grant research university in Mānoa, a neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the flagship campus of the University of Haw ...

Early years

Kafentzis participated in

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

, wrestling and track for the

Columbia High School Columbia High School may refer to: *Columbia High School (Huntsville, Alabama) *Columbia High School (Georgia) *Columbia High School (Florida) *Columbia High School (Idaho) *Columbia High School (Illinois) *Columbia High School (Mississippi), a Mis ...

Bombers of

Richland, Washington Richland () is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States. It is located in southeastern Washington at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 60,560. Along with the nearby c ...

. He earned All Big-Nine Conference and All-Area honors on offense and defense his senior year.

College career

Kafentzis first played college football for the

Hawks. He garnered All-Conference defensive back and All-American recognition as a kick return specialist. The Hawks won the National Junior College Football Championship in 1978. He was inducted into the Columbia Basin College Athletics Wall of Fame in 2012. Kafentzis transferred to play for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors from 1980 to 1981. He was

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

in 1979. He was named to the "All-Rainbow Team" of the 1980s. Kafentzis was named the 58th best player in the school's history by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2009.

Professional career

Kafentzis was selected by the

with the 199th pick in the

and played in nine games for the team during the 1982 season. He played in 31 games, starting fifteen, for the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts from 1983 to 1984. He was released by the Colts on August 20, 1985.

Personal life

Kafentzis is the oldest of five brothers who played for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. His brothers Kurt, Kent and Kyle all signed with NFL teams. Mark was inducted into the Central Washington Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, the

Northwest Athletic Conference The Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC), formerly the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC), is a sports association for community colleges in the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, along with the Canadian prov ...

Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Tri-Cities Sports Council Hall of Fame in 2003.

References

External links

College stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kafentzis, Mark Living people 1958 births American football defensive backs Columbia Basin Hawks football players Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football players Cleveland Browns players Baltimore Colts players Indianapolis Colts players Players of American football from Washington (state) People from Richland, Washington