Remembering a True Vikings Warrior: Lonnie Warwick 82

Ex-NFL player Lonnie Warwick passed away yesterday in Mount Hope, West Virginia. He was 82. Warwick was the middle linebacker for the ferocious Minnesota Vikings “Purple People Eaters” defense in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was also a standout collegiate player at Tennessee Tech University. Warwick’s cause of death has not yet been announced.

Star at an Early Age

Warwick was a Mount Hope High School star athlete born in Raleigh, West Virginia. He was named All-West Virginia in both basketball and football, and he led his team to the 1959 Class AA state championship game. He then took his talents to the University of Tennessee. However, he transferred to Tennessee Tech University the next year and starred for their football team. Tennessee Tech would induct him into its Hall of Fame in 1978

Warwick Goes to the NFL

Warwick’s path to the NFL was not a linear one. Right after high school, he worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad in Arizona for a year. He played his first season in the NFL in 1965 and became a starter for the Vikings the next year. He played eight seasons for Minnesota, leading them in tackles four times.

He was an integral part of the Vikings team that reached Super Bowl IV. While with Minnesota, he gained a reputation as a hard-hitting, aggressive linebacker. His image as a physical player prompted his teammate quarterback Joe Kapp to call Warwick “the meanest man in football.” He suffered knee injuries in the latter part of his career and played his last two seasons as a bench player for the Atlanta Falcons.

Warwick played in 120 NFL games, making 84 starts. He intercepted 12 passes, recovered 7 fumbles, and recorded 8.5 sacks in his 10 seasons.

Post NFL Career

After he finished his NFL playing career, he came out of retirement in 1975 to play for the San Antonio Wings of the World Football League, but the team folded before the season’s end. Next, Warwick would become a sometime player/ coach for the Washington Redskins for several years. After that stint, he coached at Salem University, semi-professional teams in West Virginia, and eventually the United States Football League’s Denver Gold.

He would return home to Mount Hope, where he would help coach the high school football team. He was so revered there that the town renamed their athletic field Lonnie Warwick-Mt. Hope Municipal Stadium.

Personal Aside

Lonnie Warwick was the middle linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings in 1969, when I first became interested in football. What a wondrous year it was for a young fan, as the team went 12-2 but suffered a disappointing, inglorious defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. I could not consume enough football information, and I memorized every player on the team. Joe Kapp, the swashbuckling quarterback, and star defensive linemen Carl Eller, Alan Page, and Jim Marshall would receive all of the buzz, but Warwick symbolized that team in so many ways.

A team that played its home games at the outdoor Metropolitan Stadium, where they would play in short sleeve jerseys and eschew sideline heaters. Warwick and his fellow linebackers, Wally Hilgenberg and Roy Winston, were the lunch pail, ham, and egg defenders who were the backbone of the entire unit.

Thanks Lonnie! From the kid in St. Paul who grew up worshipping you Vikings immortals.