Dale Hackbart

Who is Dale Hackbart?

Dale Leonard Hackbart is a former American football defensive back who played twelve seasons in the National Football League for the Green Bay Packers, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, St. Louis Cardinals, and Denver Broncos from 1960 to 1973. He also played in the Canadian Football League for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1964 and 1965.

Hackbert initially focused on baseball. He spent a season playing baseball for the Grand Forks Chiefs; a Class C minor league team in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Vince Lombardi convinced Hackbart to drop baseball and concentrate on a career in the National Football League.

In 1973, Hackbart was involved in an on-field transgression that he eventually took to court. He asserted that a late hit by Cincinnati Bengals running back Boobie Clark was an intentional tort.

He was with the Denver Broncos and was their starting safety in 1973.

In the first 1973 regular season game against the Cincinnati Bengals Hackbart's neck was fractured. “It was just before halftime and the Bengals had the ball at around the 45 yardline going in. Boobie Clark came out of a split backfield and ran down the hashmarks. I was playing free safety so I dropped back to the center of the field. The ball went up in the air and I converged into the endzone. Billy Thompson, who was playing left corner for the Broncos, jumped in front of me and Boobie Clark and intercepted the pass. I tried to block Boobie and landed on the ground. When I came up on to one knee watching Thompson run the ball, Boobie came up from behind me and whacked me in the back of the head, with a right fore-arm and drove me into the ground, after the Play was finsihed. My left arm went numb ! At halftime in the locker room I couldn’t take off my helmet so I was packed in ice around my neck and helmet." Hackbart was still in such severe pain after the game that he had X-rays taken, which revealed that the C4, 5, 6, and 7 vertebrae on his neck were fractured. This injury ended his football career.