John Scott Studwell (born August 27, 1954) 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. He was nicknamed "Stud".

College

Studwell graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, where he starred as a linebacker. He left Illinois ranked second behind Dick Butkus in career tackles in 1977, and was drafted in the ninth round by 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 ...

, for whom he played 14 seasons from 1977 to 1990. During that time, he was selected to two Pro Bowls.

Minnesota Vikings

He retired as the Vikings all-time leading tackler with 1,981 in his career and holds team records for single-season tackles with 230 in 1981 and 24 in a game against Detroit in 1985. He was a member of the Vikings 25th and 40th Anniversary season teams and was named one of the 50 greatest Vikings in 2010.

Scouting

After a successful career with the Vikings, he moved into their front office and since 2002 he has been the Director of College Scouting which is responsible for all the preparations of the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

. Studwell personally scouts the majority of the players the Vikings pursue and spends nearly half of each year on the road. On April 23, 2019, Studwell announced his retirement from the Vikings organization. He had been in the organization as either a player or as a part of the front office for 42 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Studwell, Scott 1954 births Living people American football linebackers Illinois Fighting Illini football players Ed Block Courage Award recipients National Conference Pro Bowl players Sportspeople from Evansville, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana