Mark Donald Herrmann (born January 8, 1959) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

player who was a

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 Am ...

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 majo ...

(NFL) for twelve seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Herrmann 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 in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

for the Purdue Boilermakers, and was recognized as an All-American. He subsequently played professionally for four different NFL teams. After retiring as a player, he became the Associate Director of Educational Programs for the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

, and currently works as a broadcaster for local football after serving on the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

broadcast crew for nearly a decade.

Early years

Herrmann was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

and raised in Carmel, Indiana, where he played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, partl ...

for Carmel High School. He also played on Carmel's state championship

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team in 1977.

College career

Herrmann attended

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

, where he played for coach

Jim Young James Norman Young (born June 6, 1943) is a former professional American football and Canadian football player. Young played running back and wide receiver for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings for two seasons (1965–66), and the CFL's BC Lions f ...

's Boilermakers teams from 1977 to 1980. Herrmann had an impressive college career; in 1980 he was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American, he was selected as 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 ...

's Most Valuable Player, and he finished fourth in voting for the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and har ...

. His 9,946 career passing yards set an NCAA record (which has since been broken). He is one of only three Purdue quarterbacks to start in three consecutive

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

s ( Drew Brees did the same, and

Kyle Orton Kyle Raymond Orton (born November 14, 1982) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for Purdue, where he started four straight bowl games. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL D ...

started four straight). Herrmann won all three of his bowl games, and was selected Most Valuable Player in each of them: the 1978

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. Since 1997, it has been sponsored by Chick-fil-A and is officially known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013, it was officially ...

, the 1979 Bluebonnet Bowl, and the 1980

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic Cit ...

. He also holds the Liberty Bowl record for passing touchdowns. *1977: 2,453 yards with 18 TD vs 27 INT in 11 games. *1978: 1,904 yards with 14 TD vs 12 INT in 11 games. *1979: 2,377 yards with 16 TD vs 19 INT in 11 games. *1980: 3,212 yards with 23 TD vs 17 INT in 11 games. Also won the

Sammy Baugh Trophy The Touchdown Club of Columbus was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1956 by Sam B. Nicola at the request of state auditor James A. Rhodes, who later became governor of the state. Nicola served as the club's president until his death in 1993. More t ...

. He was elected to the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vo ...

in May 2010.

Professional career

Herrmann was drafted by the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

in 1981, but did not play in his first year out of college. In 1982, he appeared in two games, but at the end of the season he was traded to the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

as part of the deal that brought

John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American professional football executive and former quarterback who is the president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Elway played college fo ...

to Denver. In 1983–84 Herrmann saw limited action with the Colts, first at Baltimore and then at Indianapolis. In 1985, he was traded to the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

, where he played for three seasons and performed well as the backup to Dan Fouts. Herrmann then played for the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC Wes ...

in 1988–89, and returned to the Colts for three seasons before retiring in 1992. Herrmann appeared in just 40 games during his 11-year pro career, completing 334 passes in 561 attempts (59.5%) for a total of 4,015 yards. He threw 16 touchdown passes and was intercepted 36 times.

Personal life

Herrmann lives in Indianapolis with his wife Susie. He has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrmann, Mark 1959 births Living people American football quarterbacks Baltimore Colts players Denver Broncos players Indianapolis Colts players Los Angeles Rams players Purdue Boilermakers football players San Diego Chargers players All-American college football players College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Carmel, Indiana Carmel High School (Indiana) alumni Players of American football from Cincinnati Players of American football from Indiana