David Schnell (July 15, 1966 – May 22, 2011) was an

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

player. He attended

Elkhart Central High School Elkhart Central High School (ECHS) was a public secondary school in Elkhart, Indiana. It was a part of Elkhart Community Schools. History In the fall of 1972 when Elkhart High School (est. 1872) was split into Elkhart Memorial High School and ...

Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of th ...

, and he was selected by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' in 1985 as the best high school football player in the United States. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

as a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

Hoosiers football team, which won victories in 1987 over both Michigan and Ohio State, becoming the only Indiana quarterback to defeat both teams in the same year. The following year he was selected by the conference coaches as the second-team quarterback on the

1988 All-Big Ten Conference football team The 1988 All-Big Ten Conference football team consists of American football players chosen as All-Big Ten Conference players for the 1988 NCAA Division I-A football season. The 1988 Michigan Wolverines football team captured seven of the first-te ...

. Schnell was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

in 2007 and died from the disease in May 2011 at age 44. He was inducted 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 ...

in May 2010. An annual golf-outing held in August at Christiana Creek Country Club in Elkhart, Indiana, raises money for the David E. Schnell Scholarship fund which provides local high school seniors with college football scholarships.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schnell, Dave 1966 births 2011 deaths American football quarterbacks Indiana Hoosiers football players Sportspeople from Elkhart, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana