John Richard Mansperger (May 7, 1933 – June 12, 2013) was a director of player personnel for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

and Seattle Seahawks of 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 ...

(NFL). He also was a college football coach. He played college football at Arizona State University.

Early years

Mansperger was a native of

Blythe, California Blythe is a city in eastern Riverside County, California, United States. It is in the Palo Verde Valley of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River, approximatel ...

and attended Palo Verde High School. He later enrolled at Palo Verde Junior College. He transferred to Arizona State University after his sophomore season in 1956. He played tackle under head coaches

Dan Devine Daniel John Devine (December 23, 1924 – May 9, 2002) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Arizona State University from 1955 to 1957, the University of Missouri from 1958 to 1970, and the Universi ...

and

Frank Kush Frank Joseph Kush (January 20, 1929 – June 22, 2017) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Arizona State University from 1958 to 1979, compiling a record of 176–54–1. Kush was also the head coach of th ...

, contributing to the team winning 19 of 20 games. From 1953 to 1956, he served in the Army with an airborne division, reaching the rank of lieutenant.

Professional career

In 1958, he joined the Sun Devils coaching staff as a graduate assistant, helping coach the freshmen team. In 1959, he was named the head coach at Palo Verde Junior College, compiling a 14-3-2 record. In 1961, he was an assistant coach at West Texas State University. In 1962, he returned to coach at Arizona State University. From 1963 to 1964, he was an assistant coach at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. In 1965, he was hired as a player scout by the

. In 1966, he was an assistant coach at Iowa University. In 1967, he returned to the Cowboys in a scout position. In 1972, he was named the team's Director of Player Personnel. On April 15, 1975, he was named the Director of Player Personnel for the expansion franchise Seattle Seahawks, helping turn them into a winning team in three seasons. By 1983, the Seahawks were in the AFC championship game. He resigned from his post in May 1984. On May 16, 1984, he was hired as a college scout by the

. On May 13, 1989, he was named the Cowboys Director of College Scouting. In May 1992, he resigned from the team and was replaced with

Larry Lacewell Larry Lacewell (February 12, 1937 – May 17, 2022) was an American football player, coach, scout, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Arkansas State University from 1979 to 1989, compiling a record of ...

Personal life

Mansperger died after a long battle with cancer on June 12, 2013.

Early years

Professional career

Personal life

References

Further reading