Published: June 02, 2007 10:26 pm            

Warwick's NFL memories are still vivid

PRINCETON — Every football fan knows that Joe Namath and the New York Jets shocked the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

Lost has been the fact that another AFL team shocked another NFL team in Super IV.

“In 1969, we had the best defense that was ever in football and we just didn’t think people could beat us,” Lonnie Warwick said, “but Kansas City did a good job.”

Carl Eller, Alan Page and Paul Krause are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Jim Marshall probably should be.

Warwick, a native of Mount Hope in Raleigh County, was a starting linebacker, playing with that quartet as a member of the Minnesota Vikings’ Purple People Eaters defense.

The Vikings entered Super Bowl IV as 13-point favorites, but the Kansas City Chiefs dominated the game, defeating Minnesota 23-7.

“Before the game if anybody had told me that Kansas City was going to beat us,” said Warwick, who led the Vikings with 11 tackles, “I would have said you’re crazy.”

Warwick, who returned to Princeton this week to assist with the 18th annual Princeton Tigers football camp, said that trip to the Super Bowl was the highlight of a 15-year career, most of which was played with the Vikings.

“I spent most of my time with the Vikings, but when I went to Atlanta, we had a good team in Atlanta, and when I went to the Redskins, we had a good team,” Warwick said. “I didn’t get to play much my last couple of years because I did a lot of coaching, but Minnesota was my favorite, that was my first 10 years.”

Warwick went on to play with the Falcons and served as a player-coach with the Redskins under George Allen. His best season was 1969 when he picked off four passes for the Vikings, and he added three more the following year. He made the Pro Bowl after both of those seasons.

“There were so many good linebackers then as there are now,” Warrick said, “but making the Pro Bowl was a good experience and I liked it.”

Today, the 65-year-old Warwick is still an avid football fan, and firm believer that the Vikings — which also lost Super Bowl VIII, IX and XI — will eventually win that elusive championship.

“I think it’s real frustrating with the team that we had,” Warwick said. “We really should have won Super IV, now the other times I don’t know, the teams were a lot better.

“I think we’re going to get us one here before long. I think it’s headed in the right direction.”

Warwick was raised in West Virginia, and while he has lived elsewhere, he decided to settle right back where he started. Not that he stays still long. He stays busy at speaking engagements, football camps or simply hunting or fishing.

“I was born and raised in Mount Hope and went off to college,” Warwick said. “I tried living in Tennessee and Minnesota, but I just like the old state of West Virginia.

He added: “I’m going to try to stay as active as I can for as long as I can.”

After splitting his college career at Tennessee and Tennessee Tech, Warwick signed up with the Vikings. He played nearly 10 years alongside linebackers Roy Winston and Wally Hilgenberg, a trio that has stayed close after all these years.

“We go to Minnesota about once a year, and Wally and Roy, we get together four or five times a year,” Warwick said. “As a matter of fact, we’re getting ready to go to Minnesota to fish, we fished and hunted the whole time we were up there.”

Warwick, who arrived the same season as Eller and one year before Page, renews acquaintances each July when the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies are held in Canton, Ohio.

“I go up to the Hall of Fame game every year since it is so close to here and I get to see a lot of the old guys that played for the Redskins and Kansas City and Minnesota and we just have a good time,” Warwick said. “Eller and I were rookies together and Page came in one year later, all of us guys played about 10 years together.”

Warwick, who retired in the mid-70s, is still an avid football fan who has noticed what he thinks is the biggest change in the game.

“I keep up with the game real well, and the only thing that I can see where the game has changed is it is so individualized now,” Warwick said. “It’s special, you might have a linebacker that only plays one play a series and they’ve got a lot more players.

“When I started playing, we only had 36 players on the team and now they’ve got 60-some. It’s very individualized, but it’s still the basic game, the most important thing is speed.”

Warwick is often asked if he could have played in today’s NFL. He thinks he could.

“...I say that all three of our linebackers at Minnesota at the time could play because we all could run good,” Warwick said. “We’d run a 4.5 40. If you can run, then they’ll take a look at you.”

Warwick thinks the NFL overlooks certain players in the endless pursuit of speed and athleticism. An example is Dan Mozes, the West Virginia center and the Rimington Award winner last season, who didn’t get picked in the NFL draft. He signed as a free agent with the Vikings.

“I think maybe the NFL kind of looks at this speed deal and they miss a lot of players, like Dan Mozes,” Warwick said. “I think he’s going to make it big-time, I really do and I’m glad the Vikings got him.”

Warwick combined with Princeton head coach Ted Spadaro to start the Tigers’ football camp 18 years ago. He has continued to come back, and was pleased to see a turnout this week of nearly 140 kids.

He would like to see many of them playing one day for the Mountaineers or Thundering Herd.

“I just think it’s good for the kids and I’m happy that we have this many kids coming out over here,” Warwick said. “The more we can get into playing college football, especially at West Virginia University or Marshall, I’d love to see one of these days Marshall and West Virginia start all their kids from the state of West Virginia.

“That happens. Look at Alabama, LSU and Florida. I think that would be great.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

        

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