Dave Elmendorf

Who is Dave Elmendorf?

David Cole Elmendorf is a retired American football player. He played as a safety for nine seasons in the NFL. He was a part of the Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl XIV team. In 1997 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

David attended and graduated, in 1967, from Westbury High School in Houston, Texas. He was a star football running back and baseball player. Dave played his college ball at Texas A&M University, class of 1971. Elmendorf was a 1970 All-America in football and was a twice all-American center fielder on the baseball team and was safety, kick returner and occasional tailback on the football team. He was a straight-A student, with a major in economics. He also was named Academic All-America and won a graduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation. In 1971, he was drafted to play baseball by the New York Yankees but chose to play football for the Los Angeles Rams. He was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1971 NFL Draft.

Elmendorf was a starter as a rookie for the 1971 Los Angeles Rams, making All-rookie. In 1973 he was voted the Rams "Outstanding Defensive Back, an honor he repeated in 1974. Also, in 1974 he intercepted a career-high 7 passes, returning two for touchdowns and was named All-NFC by AP. In 1975 he was a Second-team All-Pro by the AP and NEA and was Second-team All-NFC by UPI. In his nine NFL seasons Elmendorf played in 130 games, starting all 130, and intercepted 27 passes and recovering 10 fumbles.