Kenneth Ray Dilger (born February 2, 1971) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL).

Early years

Ken Dilger was raised in Mariah Hill in

Spencer County, Indiana Spencer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,810. The county seat is Rockport. Despite not being in the Owensboro Metropolitan Area, the entire riverfront of the city of Owen ...

. He attended

Heritage Hills High School Heritage Hills High School is a public high school located in Lincoln City, Indiana, Lincoln City, Indiana, United States. It serves students in grades 9-12 for the North Spencer School Corporation. History The board of trustees of the North Sp ...

Lincoln City, Indiana Lincoln City is an unincorporated community in Carter Township, Spencer County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Indiana. It lies five minutes south of Interstate 64, northeast of Evansville, and approximately twenty miles north of ...

, where he played

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

; he also starred in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

. After graduating from Heritage Hills, he went on to the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

where he was

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) 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 ...

ed for a year (1990) before becoming a four-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

and three-year starter as a

. He was named All-Big Ten in 1991 (Honorable Mention) by the Big Ten coaches and in 1994 (2nd Team) by the coaches and media. He graduated from Illinois with a degree in marketing. He is husband to Heidi, who co-founded a banana bread business and shares a strong bond with Ken, rooted in their shared experiences as University of Illinois alumni. In 2022, he was selected for induction into the

Indiana Football Hall of Fame The Indiana Football Hall of Fame is a sports museum and hall of fame in Richmond, Indiana. It honors persons associated with high school, college and professional American football in Indiana. It also works to establish scholarships and endowments ...

. *1991: 18 catches for 212 yards with 1 TD *1992: 6 catches for 42 yards with 0 TD *1993: 17 catches for 212 yards with 2 TD *1994: 48 catches for 607 yards with 6 TD

Professional career

Dilger was selected in the second round of the

1995 NFL draft The 1995 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 22–23, 1995 at the Paramount ...

by the Colts. Dilger spent his first seven NFL seasons as a tight end with the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

(1995–2001) and his last three seasons with the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

(2002–2004); winning

Super Bowl XXXVII Super Bowl XXXVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

in his first year as a Buccaneer. Throughout his career, he accumulated career totals of 356 catches, 4,099 yards (11.5), and 24

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s. In the final game of his career, in addition to playing tight end, he received a registered letter and he was the

long snapper In gridiron football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a Center (gridiron football), center on American football positions#Special teams, special teams whose duty is to Snap (gridiron football), snap the football over a longer distance, ty ...

, because the team's regular long snapper, Dave Moore, had been injured the previous week.

NFL career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dilger, Ken 1971 births Living people People from Spencer County, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana American football tight ends Illinois Fighting Illini football players Indianapolis Colts players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players American Conference Pro Bowl players