Mark Peter Kellar (born July 17, 1952) 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 ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

who played three seasons with the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

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 was drafted by the Vikings in the sixth round of the

1974 NFL Draft The 1974 NFL draft took place at the Americana Hotel in New York City, New York, on January 29–30, 1974. Each of the 26 NFL teams were granted 17 selections for a total of 442 picks. Many experts consider the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers to have h ...

. 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 ...

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

and attended Irving Crown High School in

Carpentersville, Illinois Carpentersville is a village in Kane County, Illinois, United States. The population was 37,983 at the 2020 census. Geography Carpentersville is located at (42.121156, -88.274679). According to the 2010 census, Carpentersville has a total a ...

. Kellar was also a member of the Chicago Fire,

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 ...

and

San Antonio Wings The San Antonio Wings were an American football team who played in the World Football League in 1975. The team started as the Florida Blazers in 1974, then moved to San Antonio in 1975 and became the San Antonio Wings. History The Florida Blazers ...

of the

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 ...

(WFL).

Early years

Kellar earned two varsity

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in football, two in basketball and three in track at Irving Crown High School in

. He finished third in the state

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

his senior year. He also earned All- Tri-County Conference honors in all three sports. Kellar was part of the inaugural class of inductees into the Dundee-Crown Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

College career

Kellar played for the

Northern Illinois Huskies The Northern Illinois Huskies are the athletic teams that represent Northern Illinois University (NIU). The Huskies are a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The athleti ...

from 1971 to 1973. He led

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in rushing yards with 1,719 in 1973. He set a school record for career rushing yards with 3,745 and also scored 33 touchdowns. Kellar played in the

North-South Shrine Game ''North-South'' ( hy, Հյուսիս-Հարավ) or ''Four Buddies and the Bride'' is an Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNb ...

his senior year in 1973. He was a three-time team co-MVP from 1971 to 1973 and was voted Huskies quad-captain in 1973. Kellar was also named an Honorable Mention All-American by the

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, Football News and

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during his college career. He was named to the All-Time Huskie Stadium Team in 1995 and the Huskies' All-Century Team in 1999. His jersey number 31 has been retired by the Huskies and he was inducted into the Northern Illinois University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1983.

Professional career

Kellar was selected by the

of the NFL with the 155th pick in the

. He was selected by the Chicago Fire of the WFL in the seventh round (82nd overall) of the 1974 WFL Draft. He rushed for 778 yards and nine touchdowns on 189 attempts during the 1974 season. Kellar also accumulated 28 receptions for 342 yards and six touchdowns. He signed with the WFL's

in 1975. He recorded 179 yards and two touchdowns on 62 rushing attempts during the 1975 season. Kellar also accrued 19 receptions for 181 yards. The Winds folded only a few months into the 1975 season. He then signed with the

of the WFL and played for them during the remainder of the 1975 season. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings in 1976 and played in 33 games for the team from 1976 to 1978. Kellar then retired from football.

Personal life

Kellar's brother Scott also played football at Northern Illinois University and in the National Football League.

References

External links