Remembering Mick Tingelhoff's Hall of Fame Career

Offensive linemen are often overlooked even on the NFL's best teams. Few of the game's top blockers receive the recognition they truly deserve. 

Center Mick Tingelhoff dominated in the middle of the Minnesota Vikings offensive line from 1962-78 yet remained overlooked for more than 30 years as a potential Hall of Fame inductee.

The call finally came to take his place among pro football's greats when Tingelhoff received notification last August that he was this year's lone induction nominee courtesy of the Hall of Fame's Seniors Committee.   

"It's great," Tingelhoff told TwinCities.com's Chris Tomasson upon his nomination. "I thought history had maybe forgotten me. I'm very happy."

Tingelhoff will enter the Hall of Fame as the 14th performer to have played center during his career. Very few, though, played at the same level for the same amount of time. 

"The best thing you can say about his game is he was a typical throwback lineman," former Pro Bowl offensive lineman LeCharles Bentley said about the man who anchored the Vikings offense for 17 seasons. "He epitomized toughness. As we keep moving forward in this business, the players have gotten away from that. You're not going to find another Jim Otto or Tingelhoff."

Face of a Franchise

When NFL fans discuss Minnesota Vikings history, Tingelhoff likely isn't the first, second or even fifth franchise great to be named.

Younger fans will certainly discuss the rugged running style of Adrian Peterson, the glue-like hands of Cris Carter or the elegant way Randy Moss glided about the field on his way to a future Hall of Fame induction. 

Older fans will fondly reminisce about the days when the Vikings played in four Super Bowls between 1970-77, when quarterback Fran Tarkenton led the way and a dominate defensive front known as the "Purple People Eaters" featured two future Hall of Fame members in Alan Page and Carl Eller, as well as Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen. 

Yet, it was the quiet man in the middle of the offense during the team's tremendous amount of success in the 1970s who should be heralded as Mr. Viking. 

Anonymous/Associated Press

"Mick Tingelhoff wasn't a Minnesota Viking," Tarkenton, a Hall of Fame quarterback and Tingelhoff's Hall of Fame presenter, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Mark Craig. "Mick Tingelhoff is the Minnesota Viking."

Tingelhoff epitomized his Midwest roots by overcoming the odds due to hard work and showing up every day. 

A son of German immigrants who owned a farm, Tingelhoff's parents didn't view football as a legitimate outlet even though it eventually granted their offspring an education and became his livelihood. 

"Dad thought football was a waste of time," Tingelhoff told Craig. "Mom and dad were from Germany. Mean Germans. They weren't real happy that I got a scholarship to Nebraska. They wanted me to stay on the farm."

Despite resistance from home, the young lineman became a three-year letter winner for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and a co-captain of the 1961 team, his only campaign as a starter.  

The NFL wasn't a likely option after graduation, though. The 1962 NFL draft came and went without Tingelhoff's name being called at any point during the 20 rounds. Instead, the future All-Pro center signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings. 

Even as an undrafted rookie, Tingelhoff earned the starting center spot and didn't relinquish the role until he retired after the 1978 season.

Former Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant, who is also a member of the Hall of Fame, described his center as the team's "catalyst" during their 12-year run together, per ESPN.com's Ben Goessling: 

"

Mick was a catalyst for our team and one of the most respected players on those teams. I have no doubt that had he not played center, he would have been a Hall of Fame linebacker. He played center with the mentality and tenacity of a linebacker. Mick's intangibles were the thing that made him so great. He was a captain the whole time I coached him and guys looked at him as an example of how to do things.

"

As Tingelhoff blocked for multiple running backs who accumulated 13 Pro Bowl bids during their careers, the team's center became the constant in the middle of the Vikings offense. 

Reliability

Tingelhoff's value to the Minnesota Vikings and greatness as a player revolved around one simple trait: reliability. 

"Bud always said we had two centers," former Vikings running back Dave Osborn told Craig. "Mick healthy and Mick hurt."

The interior blocker, who doubled as the team's long snapper, started 240 consecutive regular-season games and 259 total games including the playoffs.

His impressive streak ranks third all-time behind a pair of former Vikings, Brett Favre and Marshall. 

Of course, an argument can be made that longevity does not make a Hall of Fame career. Marshall is a perfect example after holding the consecutive games-started streak for nearly 30 years before Favre broke the record, and the former defensive end isn't (currently) a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

The biggest difference between Tingelhoff's career compared to Marshall's was continued excellence. The Vikings center was named to the Pro Bowl six times (1964-69) and was a five-time first-team All-Pro performer (1964-66, 1968-69). He was also selected as a second-team All-Pro in 1967 and first-team All-NFC in 1970. 

Marshall, meanwhile, was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and never made an All-Pro team. 

Not only was Tingelhoff consistent, he was consistently great.

Toughness

There is an inherent toughness in playing 259 straight games and only missing two preseason games throughout his career due to an infection in his leg. 

Tingelhoff, however, would never admit to it. 

"I'm not tough," he told Craig. "I'm ornery."

Harry Hall/Associated Press/Associated Press

Others saw it very differently. The center set the bar as a true iron man in a much more lax NFL, as it pertains to the rules. Today, the NFL is often referred to as a "100 percent injury league." Back then, players simply dealt with the injuries as if they were an everyday part of the profession. 

"Mick Tingelhoff was as tough a player as any who ever played," Tarkenton said in Jim Bruton's book, Vikings 50: All-Time Greatest Players in Franchise History (via VikingsTerritory.com's Austin Belisle). "If I gathered every football player that I knew or played with in my life and put them all in a room with the instructions to fight their way out, I would put my money on Mick to get there first."

Old-school football required playing through pain, which established a level of toughness no one on his team or at home ever questioned, not even Tingelhoff's wife. 

"I was always nervous watching my sons, but never Mick," Phyllis Tingelhoff told Craig. "He never came home and said anything hurt. He never complained. I never thought he'd miss a game, because I never knew he was hurt."

But there were times when the offensive lineman was hurt, and sometimes seriously so. 

Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman relayed a story of Tingelhoff playing one of his best games against the Green Bay Packers. The offensive lineman essentially played on one leg: 

"

One of Tingelhoff's biggest boosters was the late Vince Lombardi, who was a personal friend and told me after one of the Vikings' victories over the Packers in Green Bay, "That number 53 played one of the greatest games I've ever witnessed a center play." And when I told Lombardi that Tingelhoff played with a torn muscle, he laughed.

So to prove my point, I got Don Lannon, the Vikings' doctor at the time, to send Lombardi an X-ray of Tingelhoff's knee. The Packers coach was shocked and brought it up the next time I saw him.

When the Vikings retired his jersey in 2001, longtime Vikings trainer Fred Zamberletti verified what I told Lombardi when he told the Star Tribune: "I remember once he tore a [leg] muscle. We taped him all the way from his toes to his buttocks, and he played every play against Green Bay. I remember another time, he had a separated shoulder. The doctor said there was no way he could play, but somehow he had a miraculous recovery and played Sunday."

"

The 237-pound center relied on quickness and athleticism to dominate for well over a decade, but no one ever questioned his toughness. 

Place in History

When centers of Tingelhoff's era are discussed, Otto and the Pittsburgh Steelers' Mike Webster generally dominate the conversation. Yet, the Minnesota Vikings blocker was the gold standard who bridged those two particular careers. 

Tingelhoff faced some of the best middle linebackers in the NFL's history, guys like Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus and Jack Lambert, and he was still recognized year after year for his sterling play. 

"Mick was tough as nails," former Minnesota Vikings guard and teammate Ed White told National Football Post's Ken Crippen. "He played well against all middle linebackers. He was every bit as good as Webster. None were any better than Mick." 

As one of the best to ever play his position, Tingelhoff earned the right to be counted among pro football's truly elite. He'll finally be inducted into the Hall of Fame after a 32-year wait.

Brent Sobleski covers the NFL draft for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @brentsobleski.