Walter William Hilgenberg (September 19, 1942 – September 23, 2008) was a professional

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

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 ...

, he played 16 seasons 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), four with the Detroit Lions and 12 with the Minnesota Vikings.

Early life

Born in Marshalltown, Iowa, Hilgenberg's family moved to Wilton (then known as Wilton Junction) where he grew up and graduated from Wilton High School. He played

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in the

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at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

in Iowa City, where he starred on both sides of the line of scrimmage, as a linebacker and as a guard. Two of his nephews, Jay and Joel would play on the offensive line at center in the NFL during the 1980s and 1990s.

Professional career

Hilgenberg was selected in the fourth round of the 1964 NFL draft (48th overall) by the Lions. In 1968, he was traded from the Lions to the

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, but was waived before ever playing a game in Pittsburgh. Hilgenberg was picked up off waivers by the

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

and played for another dozen seasons, though

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. During that time, he was one of 11 players to appear in all four of the Vikings'

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

s ( IV, VIII, IX, XI).

Personal life

Hilgenberg's daughter Kristi was Miss Minnesota Teen USA 1998. His grandson Luke Lindahl was a linebacker for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Death

Hilgenberg died at age 66 in 2008, after battling

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, Terminal illness, terminal neurodegenerative disease, neurodegenerative disorder that results i ...

or Lou Gehrig's disease for several years. After his death, brain dissection found advanced chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which mimics many ALS symptoms. He was one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head.

References

External links