Fifty homecomings have come and gone since Dick Rohloff ran, passed and kicked for the Annandale High School Cardinals football team. But Rohloff, now 67, still remembers details from his outstanding senior season of football and three other sports back in 1959-60 as if it all happened yesterday. Rohloff went on to an award-winning college football career at Gustavus Adolphus and even had a shot at playing for the Minnesota Vikings before raising a family of athletes that has surpassed his own considerable achievements. Now, a half-century after an extraordinary year on the gridiron, in basketball, baseball and track, Rohloff will be back on the football field Friday night, Sept. 25, to be inducted into the Cardinal Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. He’ll become the third member – after Don Hausken two years ago and John Barrett last year – in a ceremony at halftime of the Cardinals’ Homecoming game against the Mound-Westonka White Hawks. Rohloff recalled some of the highlights – and lowlights – of his Cardinal career in a phone interview from his home on Pokegama Lake in Cohasset, near Grand Rapids. One of them, the AHS shotput record, shows how fresh those events remain for him. "I held the school record in the shotput for a number of years," he said. How long was the toss? "Fifth-two feet, 71/2 inches," Rohloff replied without hesitating. "I still remember it." He set the mark to win the event in the Region 5 track meet and advance to the state meet, where he placed fifth. "I was told at that time that I was the first Annandale athlete to place in the state track meet," Rohloff said. Another vivid memory is of the 1960 conference championship baseball game against Monticello. In those days the Cardinals played baseball and football at the city park on Pleasant Lake. Monticello was ahead 3-1 and Rohloff was up with two men on. Coach Ross Hoskins told his right-handed hitting first baseman: "Swing at the first pitch. It’s gonna be down the middle." It was and Rohloff did. "I hit it darn near into Pleasant Lake," he recalled. The Cardinals won the game 4-3 and a share of the championship. "I had to do that," Rohloff added. In the previous game against Maple Lake, he’d been up with the bases loaded and struck out on a pitch that should’ve been ball 4. That would have walked in the winning run and given the Cardinals the title. Instead, Annandale lost. "I wore the goat horns that day," he laughed. "We’ve got to have those memories too." His recollection of the football game against Delano is a sweeter one. Annandale used the old single-wing offense, and the 6 foot, 217-pound lefty directed it from a few steps behind the offensive line. "I think that night I scored four touchdowns and passed for a fifth," he said, as the Cardinals won 34-0. The first TD was an 83-yard run on the Cardinals’ third play of the game. He took a direct snap from center and ran straight ahead. "It was kind of like I ran into a wall." He took a couple of side steps and broke a couple of tackles. "And then all of a sudden there was nothing but green grass and I took off and nobody caught me." But the football team "wasn’t all about me," he said. "You won’t do well if you don’t have people helping you." Two weeks later the Cardinals, and Rohloff, were upended by Cokato. "That’s the night my high school career basically ended," he said. On the second play from scrimmage, Rohloff ran around left end and a Cokato player tackled him at the ankles. "I did a complete flip in the air and landed on my tailbone. I lost my ability to run. I just could not move." He left the game, which Annandale lost 20-7, and played little of the final game the next week, which they barely won over Monticello 7-6. Rohloff was named to the all-conference second team and the all-star game. He was back to normal by the start of the basketball season a couple weeks later. "We won our first 16 games my senior year," he said. "We were one of the last three undefeated teams in the state that year" and finished 19-2. The Cardinals lost their last regular-season game to Buffalo. "Then we beat them in the championship game of the subdistrict." Annandale lost a close one to St. Cloud Tech in the district tournament and Rohloff made the all-tournament team. At Gustavus in St. Peter, Rohloff mostly concentrated on football at offensive guard and defensive end. He collected several accolades, including the team’s most valuable player award, all conference honors on both offense and defense and a spot on the all-star football game in his senior year. More important, that’s where he first set eyes on Sue Hansen, a Glenwood High School graduate. "I met her in freshman English class at Gustavus," Rohloff said. They’ll celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary the day after Christmas. After Gustavus, he signed a contract with the Vikings in 1965 and went to training camp but didn’t make the team. Rohloff taught and coached at Mankato High School until 1973, earning a masters degree in athletics administration from Mankato State University, then worked as athletic director in the Ely schools until 1977. He got into the insurance business in the mid-’70s and semi-retired a few years ago after 27 years. He still runs his own agency part-time. The Rohloffs have three grown sons – Kurt, Jon and Todd – who all became all-conference high school football players and were recruited to play in college but opted to play Division 1 hockey. Jon played at the University of Minnesota Duluth and then for the National Hockey League’s Boston Bruins, Rohloff said. Todd played at Miami of Ohio and spent eight years in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals. Kurt probably could have played in the NHL, his father said, but as a graduate of the Air Force Academy he had a commitment to the Air Force. Rohloff wasn’t the only standout athlete in their background. Sue Rohloff’s father, Cliff Hansen, played for the Chicago Bears in the early years of the National Football League back in the 1930s. "He played with Bronko Nagurski and Red Grange," Rohloff said. "My father-in-law and my kids all did better than I did," he laughed. Leo Johnson was Rohloff’s football and track coach at AHS. Now 76, he still lives in Annandale. "He was just one heck of a good athlete," Johnson said. "He had a good arm on him; he could pass; he could run hard. "He kicked the ball into the end zone just about every kickoff." University of Minnesota football coach Murray Warmath wanted Rohloff to play for the Gophers, Johnson said, and he believes Rohloff could have made it. As for the Vikings and the NFL, "I always felt he just wasn’t mean enough for that," said Johnson, who plans to attend the induction ceremony. "Sports taught me a lot of discipline and opened a lot of doors for me," Rohloff said, "and I met a lot of tremendous people. "I think there’s a real value in athletics, not just for the competitive strategizing but the camaraderie and the values that you form and the discipline." The end zone displays and taunting by some pro athletes bother him, Rohloff said. He told the students he coached: "If you get in the end zone, act like you’ve been there before." He also told them and his sons their athletic ability isn’t the most important thing. "What kind of a person are you? I want you to be a good person."