Rick Danmeier (born April 8, 1952 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is a former professional

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 wi ...

player who was a placekicker for six seasons for 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 expansi ...

in 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 ...

. Danmeier attended White Bear Lake High School, in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. He later attended Lakewood State Junior College, and then Sioux Falls College (now the University of Sioux Falls), where he played college football. Danmeier tried out for the Vikings in 1976, then caught on with them in 1977, appearing in one game and kicking off one time, after which he was placed injured reserve due to an injury to his hand, in which his finger was amputated. His best season was 1981, when he missed only two

field goals A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

from inside the 40, and converted on 21 of 25 field goal attempts. He appeared in nine games for the Vikings in 1982, his last season with the team.Database Football
Danmeier was one of the last kickers to employ the straight-on style of kicking. His 1983 season came to an abrupt end late in the preseason when he suffered a herniated disk in his back that required surgery, and he was placed on injured reserve. He returned in 1984, attempting to win his job back, but the Vikings had also brought in Hall of Fame soccer-style kicker, future Hall of Famer

Jan Stenerud Jan Stenerud (, ; born November 26, 1942) is a Norwegian- American former football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with Kansas City Chiefs. The first Norwe ...

to compete with Rick and Benny Ricardo (the kicker from the previous season) and Stenerud won the competition. Danmeier's inactivity left

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

kicker

Mark Moseley Mark DeWayne Moseley (born March 12, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He played for Philadelphia Eagles (1970), the Houston Oilers (1971–7 ...

as the only remaining full-time placekicker in the NFL to employ the style; all NFL kickers today employ the "soccer-style", in which the kicker approaches the ball at an angle and kicks it with the instep, which was first introduced by the Hungarian brothers

Pete Pete or Petes or ''variation'', may refer to: People * Pete (given name) * Pete (nickname) * Pete (surname) Fictional characters * Pete (Disney), a cartoon character in the ''Mickey Mouse'' universe * Pete the Pup (a.k.a. 'Petey'), a character ...

and

Charlie Gogolak Charles Paul Gogolak (in Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''Gogolák Károly Pál'', born December 29, 1944) is a retired American football placekicker. The sixth overall selection of the 1966 NFL Draft, Gogolak was signed out of Princeton Tigers ...

. Danmeier was inducted to the University of Sioux Falls Cougars hall of fame in 2000. He works as a sales representative in sporting goods.

References

1952 births Living people Players of American football from Saint Paul, Minnesota American football placekickers University of Sioux Falls people Minnesota Vikings players {{Amfoot-kicker-stub