05/21/26 05:10:00
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05/21 17:08 CDT Kurt Warner gets into Northern Iowa hall of fame nearly decade
after his Pro Football HOF induction
Kurt Warner gets into Northern Iowa hall of fame nearly decade after his Pro
Football HOF induction
By ERIC OLSON
AP College Football Writer
Almost a decade after he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Kurt
Warner is finally entering the Northern Iowa athletics hall.
Warner, who was among eight former UNI athletes announced as 2026 inductees on
Thursday, won one Super Bowl and played in two others during an improbable
12-year NFL career that ended after the 2009 season.
The Burlington native was a member of four straight conference championship
teams at UNI and was the Panthers' starting quarterback as a senior in 1993. He
went to training camp with the Green Bay Packers and was cut, stocked shelves
at a Cedar Falls grocery store and was an Arena Football League star three
years with the Iowa Barnstormers.
In 1998, after leading NFL Europe in touchdowns and passing yards, he joined
the St. Louis Rams and became the team's starting quarterback in 1999. He led
the Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" offense to a Super Bowl victory over the
Tennessee Titans in 2000 and was the game's MVP.
Warner made it back to the Super Bowl with the Rams in 2002 and with the
Arizona Cardinals in 2009. He was voted the Associated Press' NFL MVP in 1999
and 2001 and his career passing average of 260.8 yards per game ranks 11th.
Warner, who lives in Arizona, did not immediately respond to messages seeking
comment.
A UNI spokesman did not have immediate comment beyond saying Warner's glaring
absence from the hall of fame was not an oversight. A committee convenes each
year to select inductees.
Warner has had a lukewarm relationship with the university, according to the
Cedar Rapids Gazette.
People around UNI athletics have said Warner has long been unhappy about having
to wait until his senior year to be the starter and he had little connection to
the university after he left.
"The guy who started ahead of Kurt won 31 games in three years," Warner's
college coach, Terry Allen, said in 2009. "The timing in Kurt's college career
was not the best, but the timing in his pro career has been absolutely awesome."
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