Vern Wayne Den Herder (born November 28, 1948) 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 wi ...
player who played 12 seasons for the
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...
of the
NFL. He played in three
Super Bowls
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
for the Dolphins. In 1996, he was selected to the
College Football Hall of Fame.
High school career
Den Herder attended high school in
Sioux Center, Iowa
Sioux Center is a city in Sioux County, Iowa. The population was 8,229 at the time of the 2020 census. Sioux Center is notable for its Dutch heritage, agribusiness, and as the location of Dordt University.
Geography
Sioux Center is located at ...
. There was no
football team
A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...
his first two years but he was a star in his
junior
Junior or Juniors may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959
* ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009
* ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010
* ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019
Films
* ''Junior'' (1994 ...
and
senior seasons. He was a star in
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
and added football his last two years.
College career
Den Herder chose
Central College in
Pella, Iowa
Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, Marion County, Iowa, United States, with a population of 10,464 at the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. Founded by immigrants from the Netherlands, it is forty miles southeast of Des ...
, because of its reputation for education in sciences and its affiliation with the
Reformed Church in America. He was graduated
cum laude with a major in
chemistry. At in height, he was the starting
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
on Central's basketball team for four years and set the school scoring record. He played
defensive end
Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football.
This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...
in football.
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
anchorman
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet ...
Harry Smith was a teammate.
Den Herder made All-Iowa Conference in 1968, 1969, and 1970. In 1970, his senior season, he was
team captain
In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...
, Iowa Conference
MVP
In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...
, and was named
All-America
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
, college division, by the
NAIA, the Football Coaches Association, and the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
. Furthermore, he was coached by the late
Ron Schipper
Ronald Maurice "Skip" Schipper (August 7, 1928 – March 27, 2006) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator.
Career
Schipper coached high school football for Northville High School in Northville, Michigan from 1952 ...
, himself a
College Football Hall of Famer, at Central Iowa.
Professional career
As the
NFL did not officially maintain
sack records until 1982, he unofficially led the Dolphins in sacks in 1972 with 10; Den Herder also unofficially led the team in 1975 with a career high 11 sacks. He was named All-AFC in 1972. In October 1973, he unofficially tied
Bill Stanfill
William Thomas Stanfill (January 13, 1947 – November 10, 2016) was a defensive end for the Miami Dolphins of the American Football League and then the NFL after the AFL-NFL merger of 1970. He was a member of Miami's two Super Bowl-winning t ...
for most sacks in a single game with 5, as Stanfill had recently surpassed the previous total just two weeks earlier. Also, he unofficially led the Dolphins in sacks during the 1978 and 1979 seasons with 9. His unofficial total of 64 sacks ranks fourth on the Dolphins sack list.
In addition to his five-sack game in 1973, Den Herder recorded two four-sack games (September 22, 1974, at Buffalo Bills) and (November 11, 1979, vs. Baltimore Colts).
He was voted by the NEA as the Dolphins MVP in 1979.
Coach
Don Shula called him "one of the most dependable players I've ever coached."
Retirement and post-football career
Seeing that the game had evolved toward more passing-oriented strategies that weren't attuned to his run-stopping ability, Den Herder originally decided to retire in 1981, returning to his hometown to work in a cattle feeding operation. However, Coach Shula asked him to return to the game for one more season after the Dolphins roster had thinned due to injuries. He ended his career after playing in
Super Bowl XVII.
[
After retiring from football for the second time, Den Herder returned to Sioux Center, Iowa and became a farmer, now specializing in corn and soybeans.][Greg Cote]
Greg Cote: White House invite a last stamp of approval for '72 Miami Dolphins
''Miami Herald'', August 19, 2013, accessed August 19, 2013. He is married and the father of two children.[ Due to a harvest, he was unable to join the rest of the 1972 Perfect Season Dolphins at a ceremony in their honor, hosted by President ]Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
at the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Den Herder, Vern
1948 births
American football defensive linemen
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Living people
Miami Dolphins players
Reformed Church in America members
People from Le Mars, Iowa
Central Dutch football players
Central Dutch men's basketball players
People from Sioux Center, Iowa
American men's basketball players
Centers (basketball)