RIP Lonnie Warwick

Minnesota Vikings legendary middle linebacker Lonnie Warwick passed away Monday night. He was 82. 

After earning All-Ohio Valley Conference honors at Tennessee Tech in 1962 and 1963, Warwick left school to work on the railroad. It was a different time. The Minnesota Vikings signed him during the 1964 offseason and he spent that season on the team’s taxi squad. He made the active roster in 1965. The highlight of his rookie season was returning a blocked punt for a game-winning touchdown in a 38-35 win over the Los Angeles Rams. In 1966, Warwick earned the Vikings starting middle linebacker job that he’d hold for the next five seasons. He was in the middle of a defense that would emerge into one of the best the NFL has ever seen. The Purple People Eaters. That defense is best known for a front line of Jim Marshall, Alan Page, Gary Larsen, and Carl Eller. Page and Eller are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Marshall is in the middle of another run to join them in Canton. While the defensive line quartet were the headliners, this Vikings defense was great from front to back. Warwick and linebacker-mates Roy Winston and Wally Hilgenberg did their part in destroying the plans of offenses across the league. 

The Minnesota Vikings middle linebacker of my youth was Jeff Siemon. He was the team’s first-round pick out of Stanford in the 1972 NFL Draft. He was drafted to take over for Warwick. Despite Bud Grant’s reluctance to play rookies, Siemon replaced Warwick in the starting lineup about halfway through the 1972 season. Winston remained the starter on the left-side for another couple seasons. Hilgenberg was the starter on the right-side through the 1976 season. While the linebacking trio of Winston-Warwick-Hilgenberg was slightly before my time with the team, they have always been one of my favorites. Only the Chad Greenway-E.J. Henderson-Ben Leber trio really comes close. Perhaps it was the legendary status of those late-1960s and early-1970s defenses, Winston, Warwick, and Hilgenberg were special to me. Every linebacker group that followed were chasing them. It was a tough task. They were great on the field. They were very close off the field. They were hunting buddies. I love hearing and reading the tales of them always sitting or standing as they would on the field. Left to right or right to left, Warwick was always in the middle flanked by his friend and teammate. They were always together. They were always in the appropriate spot. Another favorite story was the postgame brawl between Warwick and quarterback Joe Kapp. Both were well into a stay at a local drinking establishment following a loss. Warwick felt the loss was due to the play of the defense. Kapp thought the loss was more due to the play of the offense. Each was demanding that their unit be blamed for the loss. Neither would budge. It turned into a fist-fight. The Vikings of those days were like that. They fought for each other on the field. They sometimes fought each other off the field. Lonnie Warwick was always in the middle of it. 

RIP Lonnie Warwick.