Ronald William Yankowski (born October 23, 1946) is a former

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

who played 10 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 ma ...

(NFL) for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals h ...

. Yankowski played college football at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public insti ...

and

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot. ...

. Yankowski was drafted in the eighth round by the

in 1971 and started ten games at defensive end his rookie season. The biggest play of his career came in a 1974 game at Washington when he returned a Billy Kilmer fumble 71 yards for a touchdown to help the Cards to a 17–10 victory. Yankowski played in 128 games during his ten-year career in St. Louis and finished with five fumble recoveries and 30 sacks.

References

1946 births Living people Sportspeople from Arlington, Massachusetts American football defensive ends Kansas State Wildcats football players St. Louis Cardinals (football) players Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Golden Norsemen football players Players of American football from Middlesex County, Massachusetts {{defensive-lineman-1940s-stub