30 Oct
Kassulke Passes
Posted by: danzinski
Former Vikings safety Karl Kassulke died Monday of a heart attack at the age of 67. Kassulke played 10 years with the Vikings after being drafted out of Drake, making the Pro Bowl once, and starting in Super Bowl IV. His career was cut short in 1973 when, while riding his motorcycle to training camp, he suffered an accident that paralyzed him from the waist down. Bob Lurtsema, who was to be Kassulke’s roommate that year, remembers the moment coach Bud Grant informed the team of the crash (via the Star-Tribune):
Bud broke down and started to cry. Tears were coming down my cheeks. You could hear a pin drop. … That says more for any individual of being the total package for a coach to respect him that much.
