Don Klosterman (American football)

Don Klosterman (b. 1930, LeMars, Iowa) was one of Professional Football's most accomplished executives, building teams in three different leagues after a serious accident ended his career as a quarterback and left his legs partially paralyzed. The 12th of 15 children, as a youth Klosterman moved to Compton, CA with his family. He was collegiate football's leading passer in 1951, for Loyola University of Los Angeles. Drafted by the Cleveland Browns, he found himself behind Otto Graham and was traded to the Rams, only to back up Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield. He turned to the Canadian League, playing quarterback for Calgary until he had a skiing accident.

In the 1960's Klosterman helped the American Football League (AFL, 1960-1969) overtake the NFL during the bidding wars that led the older league to seek a merger with the AFL. In the 1970's he was a successful general manager for the NFL's Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams, and in the 1980's he signed all-American quarterback Steve Young to a stunning contract in the United States Football League (USFL).

Before becoming a football executive, he almost lost his life on a ski slope on St. Patrick's Day in 1957, while he was between seasons as quarterback for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He tried to avoid anther skiier at Banff, Alberta, and damaged his spinal cord when he hit a tree. He had eight surgeries and was told he would never walk again, but he regained partial feeling and with the aid of a cane, walked again within a year.

In 1960, Frank Leahy, the former head coach at Notre Dame, was the general manager of the AFL's Los Angeles Chargers. He asked Klosterman to help him recruit players. Klosterman joined the team and helped land Hall of Famers Lance Alworth, Ernie Ladd, John Hadl and Jack Kemp. He moved on to the AFL's Dallas Texans and with them and their successors, the Kansas City Chiefs, he helped sign Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Pete Beathard, Mike Garrett and Otis Taylor, most of them important players in the Chiefs' destruction of the NFL's Vikings in the Fourth AFL-NFL World Championship Game.

He guided the AFL's Houston Oilers to two playoff berths in his four years as their general manager (1966-1969), then moved to the NFL as Baltimore's general manager in 1970. The Colts won Super Bowl V after his first season as GM. Carroll Rosenbloom, the Colts' owner, traded franchises with the Los Angeles Rams owner in 1972. Rosenbloom kept Klosterman as his GM through the 1982 season and was rewarded with a series of playoff teams.

Klosterman then served as general manager of the Los Angeles Express of the USFL, which gained wide publicity when he signed Young, the star passer at Brigham Young. The deal was in excess of $40 million in 1984. Although the league folded, Young became a star with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers.

In 1995, after the LA Rams went to St. Louis and the LA Raiders returned to Oakland. Klosterman joined with former 49ers coach Bill Walsh in an unsuccessful effort to obtain a new NFL franchise for Los Angeles.

Klosterman died in Los Angeles of a heart attack on June 7, 2000.

Also See

• Other American Football League players, coaches, and contributors

Eternal Links

• Klosterman's citation in the American Football League Hall of Fame