C Kirk Lowdermilk (official thread)

[Buckskin86]

OSU ON SUNDAY
Today Centers
Saturday, September 12, 2009
By BY RAY STEIN

Each week, Gameday+ examines Ohio State's impact on professional football with a position-by-position analysis of the Buckeyes who have made a mark in the NFL.

Centers get every football play started -- that's a snap -- so it seems a logical place to begin in earnest our series on Buckeyes in the NFL. Truth be told, though, former Ohio State centers haven't quite lit up the league over the years. There have been a handful of solid performers, but no one knocking down Canton's door -- at least not yet.

Best of the rest

Kirk Lowdermilk

As a Buckeye

1981 to 1984, earning All-Big Ten honors as a senior

As a pro

A third-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 1985, he played eight seasons for Minnesota and four with the Indianapolis Colts. His career included 150 starts in 178 games played.

The skinny

Started every game in his four seasons with the Colts after signing as a free agent in 1993. In his 12-year career, Lowdermilk was part of six teams that made the playoffs.

The Columbus Dispatch : OSU ON SUNDAY

 

[Buckskin86]

Salem’s Kirk Lowdermilk starred at OSU, in NFL
Kirk Lowdermilk caught the eye of then-Ohio State coach Earle Bruce in the state wrestling meet

By ryan buck

[email protected]

In the spring of 1993, Salem High graduate and former Ohio State standout Kirk Lowdermilk accepted a three-year, $6 million free agent contract with the Indianapolis Colts.

From 1986 to 1992, as the anchor of the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive line, he proved to be arguably the best center in the NFL.

Lowdermilk left Colts owner Robert Irsay’s house that day with the largest contract ever for an offensive lineman.

“For about 10 minutes,” he laughed as he described the experience by phone.

In actuality, it was about one day.

The Colts then signed offensive tackle Will Wolford to a $7.5 million deal, the result of a spending spree on coveted protection for a generation of young quarterbacks that had taken the league by storm. The Colts’ QB was Jeff George.

The money and the attention never changed the man who was born and raised in small towns in northeastern Ohio, however.

“I don’t think it was hard,” Lowdermilk said. “You still have to compete every day to keep your job. Once the contract’s signed, it’s over. You’re still fighting to keep your job.”

The story is not all that different from the way the three-sport standout at Salem had to fight to earn a Division I football scholarship.

Despite being dominant as a two-way lineman, the overlooked Lowdermilk says he had exactly one Division I offer after his senior football season in 1980.

“My only choice was the University of Toledo until after wrestling season,” Lowdermilk said.

cont...

http://www.vindy.com/news/2013/oct/04/heavyweight-career-started-on-the-mat/