Lynn Dickey : biography
Clifford Lynn Dickey (born October 19, 1949) is a retired National Football League quarterback, who played for the Houston Oilers and the Green Bay Packers in the 1970s and 1980s.
College career
Dickey was recruited by Kansas State University in 1967, and he soon became the top quarterback in the Big Eight Conference. Following his senior season in 1970, Dickey finished 10th in the voting for the Heisman Trophy and was named MVP of the East-West Shrine Game. His 6,208 career passing yards stood as a record at Kansas State for 38 years, until it was passed by Josh Freeman in 2008.
High school
Dickey grew up in Osawatomie, Kansas, where he led his high school football team to a state championship. The football stadium there is named after him.
Professional career
Houston Oilers
Following graduation, Dickey was drafted in the third round of the 1971 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers, where he played four seasons.1971, 1973-75 Dickey started ten games with the Oilers, winning two overall, including Houston’s lone win in the 1973 season.The Oilers went 1-13 in 1973,
Green Bay Packers
In 1976 he was packaged in a trade to the Green Bay Packers involving John Hadl.http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4IA0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=Vo0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6860,469255&hl=en Dickey led the Packers to the playoffs in the strike-shortened 1982 season. The Packers won the opening round after Dickey went 19 of 26 (73%) for 286 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions in a 41-16 triumph over the St. Louis Cardinals.http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198301080gnb.htm Green Bay was eliminated the following week by the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round after Dickey went 24 of 37 for 274 yards with 1 touchdown and 3 interceptions as the team fell 37-26.http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198301160dal.htm
Perhaps the high point of Dickey’s NFL career came in 1983 when he powered the Packers’ offense to a then-team record 429 points.http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/gnb/1983.htmhttp://www.packers.com/history/record_book/team_records/scoring/ His 4,458 yards that season served as the team record until being surpassed by Aaron Rodgers in 2011,http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/8439/aaron-rodgers and threw a career-best 32 touchdowns, the most in the NFL in 1983.http://www.packers.com/history/record_book/individual_records/passing/ Dickey was named second-team All-NFC behind Joe Theismann. Dickey’s Packers had beaten Theismann’s Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins in a thrilling Monday Night Football game earlier that season (Washington kicker Mark Moseley missed a field goal in the closing seconds, preserving the Packers’ 48-47 win).http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198310170gnb.htm The game remains the highest aggregate score in MNF history.http://www.packers.com/history/record_book/individual_records/passing/
Dickey retired from professional football after the 1985 season.http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DickLy00.htm?redir He holds Packers records for highest completion percentage in a game with a minimum of 20 attempts (19-21, 90.48%, versus New Orleans on December 13, 1981http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198112130nor.htm). His record for most passing yards in a regular season game (418 versus Tampa Bay on October 12, 1980 was broken by Matt Flynn on Jan. 1, 2012 with 480 yards.http://en.wikipedia.org (Aaron Rodgers had 422 in a playoff game against the Arizona Cardinalshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_quarterbacks_who_have_passed_for_400_or_more_yards_in_a_game#Every_400-yard_game_in_date_order); and highest average gain in a season (9.21 yards per attempt in 1983http://prod.static.packers.clubs.nfl.com/assets/docs/media-guide/2011packers_337-592.pdf). The latter is an NFL single-season record for quarterbacks with 400 or more attempts.
Personal life
After retiring from football, Dickey relocated to the greater Kansas City area where he opened a football-themed restaurant. After a business partner was found to be unethical, he left the restaurant business for a career in public relations. Dickey has three grown daughters; Natalie, Meredith, and Elizabeth and resides in Leawood, Kansas. He then worked for the popular Kansas City AM station Sports Radio 810 on the show "Crunch Time", airing at 9:00 a.m. He now works at Serve You, a Pharmacy Benefit Management company home based in Milwaukee, WI.
Honors
In 1996, when the Big Eight expanded to the Big 12 Conference, the Associated Press named Dickey as the All-Time Big Eight Quarterback. Kansas State University has retired the No. 11 to jointly honor Dickey and his successor at KSU, Steve Grogan. It is the only number retired by Kansas State’s football program.
Dickey is a member of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
