Maurice Emerson "Maurie" Daigneau III (born May 5, 1950) is a former

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 ...

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 ...

Early years

Daigneau was born in

Olmsted County, Minnesota Olmsted County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population is 162,847. Its county seat and most populous city is Rochester. Olmsted County is part of the Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area. History ...

, in 1950. He grew up in

Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic. Acco ...

, and attended John Marshall High School.

Northwestern University

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 ...

for the

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...

from 1969 to 1971. In three years at Northwestern, he completed 298 of 659 passes for 4,237 yards, 23 touchdowns, and 53 interceptions. As a senior in 1971, he led the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

with 1,733 passing yards (a Northwestern school record) and led the

1971 Northwestern Wildcats football team The 1971 Northwestern Wildcats team represented Northwestern University during the 1971 Big Ten Conference football season. In their eighth year under head coach Alex Agase, the Wildcats compiled a 7–4 record (6–3 against Big Ten Conference ...

to a victory over Ohio State and a second place finish in the Big Ten. Daignau was selected by the

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and the

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

as a first-team player on the 1971 All-Big Ten Conference football team.

World Football League

In 1974, he played for the

Chicago Fire (WFL) The Chicago Fire was an American football team in the short-lived World Football League for one season, 1974. Formation The team was founded in late October 1973, with building magnate Thomas Origer becoming the first owner to purchase a WFL fra ...

in the newly-formed

World Football League The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 and most of its second in 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest t ...

and appeared in 12 games. He then signed with the

Chicago Winds The Chicago Winds was the World Football League's ill-fated 1975 successor to the Chicago Fire. The team was so named because Chicago was nicknamed "The Windy City." The Winds played at Soldier Field and the team was assigned to the WFL's Weste ...

in July 1975, and later with the Milwaukee County Spartans of the Central States Football League.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daigneau, Maurie 1950 births Living people American football quarterbacks Northwestern Wildcats football players Chicago Fire (WFL) players People from Rochester, Minnesota Players of American football from Minnesota