John Scott Studwell (born August 27, 1954), nicknamed "Stud", 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

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

who played for the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

of 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). He played

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for the

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the College athletics, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's Varsity team, varsity sports. The university op ...

. He was a two-time

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players. The format has changed ...

selection with the Vikings.

College career

Studwell graduated from 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 starred as a linebacker. He left Illinois ranked second behind Dick Butkus in career tackles in 1977, and was drafted in the ninth round by the

, for whom he played 14 seasons from 1977 to 1990. During that time, he was selected to two Pro Bowls.

Minnesota Vikings

He retired as the Vikings all-time leading tackler with 1,981 in his career and holds team records for single-season tackles with 230 in 1981 and 24 in a game against Detroit in 1985. He was a member of the Vikings 25th and 40th Anniversary season teams and was named one of the 50 greatest Vikings in 2010.

Scouting

After a successful career with the Vikings, he moved into their front office and since 2002 he has been the Director of College Scouting which is responsible for all the preparations of the

NFL Draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

. Studwell personally scouts the majority of the players the Vikings pursue and spends nearly half of each year on the road. On April 23, 2019, Studwell announced his retirement from the Vikings organization. He had been in the organization as either a player or as a part of the front office for 42 years.

References

1954 births Living people American football middle linebackers Illinois Fighting Illini football players National Conference Pro Bowl players Players of American football from Evansville, Indiana Minnesota Vikings players Delta Chi members 20th-century American sportsmen {{Linebacker-1950s-stub