Northern Kentucky-born athletes have been playing in the National Football League for 100 years. The NFL took its name in 1922 after being founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA). In 1925, Bill Knecht from Newport made his NFL debut as a lineman after playing college football at Xavier. He attended high school in Cincinnati.
Knecht is the first northern Kentucky-born player to appear in an NFL game, according to pro-football-reference.com. He played in three or four NFL games, depending on the source. Pro-football-reference.com has Knecht listed as a 6-foot-3, 205-pound offensive tackle. According to the site, he played in three games at age 22, starting all three for the 1925 Dayton Triangles in Ohio. He was released the same year.
At profootballarchives.com, Knecht is listed at 6-1, 200 with four games played at offensive tackle, defensive tackle, fullback and linebacker. Both databases have his date of birth listed as Jan. 24, 1903, in Newport, and date of death as December 9, 1934, in Lima, Ohio. Another site listing the 1925 Dayton Triangles’ roster has Knecht born in 1899. Regardless of source, it appears that he died at a young age. NFL.com lists him at 6-1, 188 pounds with no biography and no statistics. Playing primarily offensive tackle, he would have compiled few stats, most lost to history.
Other than the conflicting information, little is known about Knecht’s pro football career. At Xavier, Knecht was a liberal arts student and a team captain. He was one of four seniors on the team his final year in 1924. He was all-Ohio two seasons at offensive tackle. One of his Xavier teammates was fellow Newport native Mike Madden. Knecht attended East Side High School, now known as Withrow, and was there when the school opened in 1919.
Of the more than 270 players born in Kentucky who have played in at least one NFL game, more than 20 were born in northern Kentucky. The list does not include former area greats who weren’t born in the area, such as Dixie Heights’ Mark Pike, born in Elizabethtown and Highlands’ great Marty Moore, born in Phoenix, Arizona.
Highlands’ Gino Guidugli and brother Ben Guidugli, both born in Fort Thomas, went unselected in the NFL draft. Both later signed with NFL teams and did not play in an official game. Highlands great Derek Smith, born in Silver Grove, was on the Bengals’ practice squad in 2002. Also omitted is former Campbell County sheriff George Ratterman, the one-time NFL quarterback in the 1950s. He played for the NFL’s New York Yankees and Cleveland Browns. Ratterman was born in Cincinnati.
The NFL list includes some of the greatest names in northern Kentucky prep football history including Boone County legend Shaun Alexander. He was born in Florence. Other notable locals include Newport’s Irv Goode, Bellevue’s Bob Dougherty, Doug Pelfrey from Fort Thomas and Covington’s Jared Lorenzen.
Goode played his final two high school seasons at Boone County. Dougherty played prep football at Bellevue. Pelfrey kicked at Scott. Lorenzen set passing records at Highlands.
Goode was named a Sporting News High School All-American for the Rebels. The Boone County football team plays home games on Irv Goode Field. He played guard for the NFL St. Louis Cardinals, Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins from 1962-74. He also played tackle and was a long snapper. Goode played in 162 NFL games and was named to the Pro Bowl in 1964 and 1967.
Dougherty played linebacker in the NFL for the Los Angeles Rams in 1957 and Pittsburgh Steelers in 1958. He played for the AFL’s Oakland Raiders from 1960–63. He played in 69 NFL games as a reserve and came up with three career interceptions.
Pelfrey played with the Bengals from 1993-99 and scored 660 points. Known for his accuracy, he set a Bengals record for most consecutive point-after kicks converted with 101. Pelfrey became the most accurate kicker in NFL history in 1996 but has slid down the list over the years.
Lorenzen was with the New York Giants. Known as the “Hefty Lefty”, he was the heaviest quarterback to play in the NFL at 285 pounds. But he saw little playing time from 2004-07. He threw for 28 career yards and posted a 58.3 passer rating.
The man known as “Alexander the Great” stands above them all. In the NFL, Alexander rushed for 9,453 yards and scored 112 touchdowns for Seattle and Washington from 2000-08. He won a rushing title, an MVP award and set a single-season touchdown record. He was the leading rusher in Super Bowl XL. Alexander was the cover athlete for Madden NFL 2007, and the first player to be featured on the covers of both Madden NFL and NCAA Football.
Rebels coach Owen Hauck knew what he had in Alexander, saying to me in 2014, “You didn’t really want one kid doing it all. But he was so much better than everybody else that it was one of those kind of things where we just gave him the ball and hoped everybody blocked.”
Thirty years ago, Alexander led Boone County to the state final while putting up some of the best rushing numbers in prep history. He carried 456 times, ranking second in Kentucky history and third nationally. He rushed for 3,166 yards in 1994. It’s the best single-season total in northern Kentucky history and third all-time in Kentucky. He scored 50 rushing touchdowns, still a Kentucky record. Alexander was Kentucky’s Mr. Football and a Parade Magazine All-America that year. Alexander’s name is listed in the KHSAA record book 19 times.
With all of those incredible accomplishments, it was the family factor that stayed with Alexander, as he explained to me during a conversation in 2014.
“One of the greatest things my senior year was I got to play with my cousin, Ben Brown,” Alexander said. “It made my year so sweet.”
Locally-born athletes currently playing in the NFL are Derrick Barnes from Holy Cross and Michael Mayer from Covington Catholic. Mayer, a tight end with the Las Vegas Raiders, was born in Independence. Barnes, a linebacker with the Detroit Lions, is one of at least six Covington-born NFL players. The list also includes Lorenzen, Lloyd McDermott, Larry Schreiber, Fred Rayhle and Chuck Bradley.
At least four NFL players were born in Fort Thomas, including Pelfrey, Jerry Reynolds, Rob Smith and most recently Mike Mitchell. Also from Bellevue are Art Mergenthal and Bob Ravensberg. Bob DeMoss and Bill Murray were born in Dayton.
NFL players have also come from Burlington, which produced Phil Clark, and Edgewood, where Charles Johnson was born. Clark, a defensive back with four career interceptions in Dallas, Chicago and New England, was active in the NFL from 1967-71. He played at Taylor High School near Cincinnati. Johnson, who starred at Lloyd Memorial, caught 60 passes in three seasons for the Minnesota Vikings from 2014-16.
In addition to Alexander in Seattle, Goode also played in the Super Bowl for Miami. Lorenzen’s New York Giants made the Super Bowl but he didn’t play in the big game. Pike played on four Super Bowl teams in Buffalo.