Kurt Warner gets into Northern Iowa hall of fame nearly decade after his Pro Football HOF induction
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. He was inducted into the pro football hall in 2017.
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 had a lukewarm relationship with the university in the years after he left, according to a 2009 story in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. But in 2021, UNI and its trademark licensing agency partnered with Warner and his agency, Priority Sports, to develop and launch a merchandise line celebrating Warner’s legacy. That was the year “American Underdog,” a movie about Warner's life, was released.
People around UNI athletics have said Warner has long been unhappy about having to wait until his senior year to be the starter.
“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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