ScottStudwell
Born John Scott Studwell in Evansville, Indiana on 27 August 1954, and known around Winter Park simply as “Stud”. He gave the Minnesota Vikings forty-two years — fourteen of them in a helmet, twenty-eight of them holding a stopwatch and a clipboard.
Half one · The player
1977–1990
Fourteen seasons at linebacker, every one of them in Minnesota. Two Pro Bowls, 201 regular-season games, and the tackle totals the club still lists at the top of its own record book.
Half two · The evaluator
1991–2019
Twenty-eight seasons in the personnel department, including twelve as Director of College Scouting. He retired from the organisation in April 2019.
Scott Studwell at a glance
- Born
- 27 August 1954, Evansville, Indiana
- College
- Illinois (1973–1976)
- Drafted
- 1977, round 9, pick 250 overall
- Height / weight
- 6 ft 2 in, 228 lb
- Vikings seasons
- 14 as a player, 28 in personnel
- Pro Bowls
- 2 (1987, 1988 seasons)
- Ring of Honor
- Inducted 2009
- Jersey No. 55
- Not retired by the club
The 250th Pick Who Would Not Leave
Minnesota spent the 250th selection of the 1977 NFL Draft — a ninth-round pick, near the very bottom of the board — on a linebacker out of the University of Illinois. He was still on the roster fourteen seasons later, and he never played a regular-season snap for anyone else.
Studwell arrived at Illinois in 1973 and left after the 1976 season as a third-team Associated Press All-American and a first-team All-Big Ten pick, having ranked second in Illini history in career tackles behind only Dick Butkus. The NFL was less impressed than the Big Ten had been; nine rounds and 249 players went by before Minnesota called.
He spent his first three seasons mostly on special teams and in reserve, starting just six games between 1977 and 1979. From 1980 he was a fixture, moving between middle and inside linebacker as Minnesota's defensive fronts changed around him, and starting 154 of his final 160 appearances. His two Pro Bowl selections came late, for the 1987 and 1988 seasons, when he was 33 and 34 years old.
He was named to the club's 25th and 40th Anniversary Teams, its All-Mall of America Field Team, and in 2010 was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Vikings.
Career in six numbers
- 14SeasonsAll with Minnesota
- 201Games160 starts
- 2Pro Bowls1987, 1988
- 11Interceptions97 return yards
- 16Fumbles recovered11 forced
- 10SacksSee note below
1,981 Tackles — and What That Number Actually Is
Studwell is credited by the Minnesota Vikings as the franchise's all-time leading tackler with 1,981 career tackles. The club also lists him at the top of its single-season list with 230 tackles in 1981 and its single-game list with 24 against Detroit in 1985.
Read this before you quote the figure
Tackles were not a league-official statistic during Studwell's playing career. Through his era each club compiled its own tackle counts from its own film review, and the criteria for what counted as a tackle — and for how an assist was scored — varied from team to team and sometimes from season to season within the same team. The NFL does not certify these numbers, and Pro Football Reference publishes no tackle column at all for players of this period, noting that pre-1994 tackle data is unofficial and inconsistently recorded between franchises.
So 1,981 is best described as a club-compiled, unofficial total. It is the figure the Vikings themselves use, and the Vikings' own accounting describes it as covering defensive and special-teams tackles across his fourteen seasons. It is a real and meaningful record inside the franchise's own books. It is not an NFL record, it cannot be checked against a league ledger, and it should not be compared directly with modern tackle totals compiled under today's consistent rules.
The same caution applies to his sack total. Sacks only became an official NFL statistic partway through his career; the 10 sacks listed above are Pro Football Reference's figure, compiled from play-by-play accounts and game-film research rather than from a complete official league record.
Fourteen Years in One Column
Games, starts and the countable defensive numbers, as recorded by Pro Football Reference. No tackle column appears here for the reason given above: no verifiable per-season tackle data exists for this era.
| Season | Games | Starts | Int | Int yds | FF | FR | Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 4 | — | 0 | 0.0 |
| 1978 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 1979 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1980 | 16 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1981 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1.0 |
| 1982 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3.0 |
| 1983 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.0 |
| 1984 | 16 | 15 | 1 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 1985 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 1986 | 15 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1.0 |
| 1987 PB | 12 | 11 | 2 | 26 | 0 | 1 | 1.0 |
| 1988 PB | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1.0 |
| 1989 | 16 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1.0 |
| 1990 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 14 seasons | 201 | 160 | 11 | 97 | 11 | 16 | 10.0 |
The 1982 season was shortened by a players' strike. The Vikings separately credit Studwell with 12 postseason appearances, which are not included in the totals above.
14 + 28 = 42
Playing seasons + personnel seasons = years with the Vikings
He Stopped Playing. He Did Not Leave.
Studwell's last game was in the 1990 season. On 1 June 1991 the Vikings hired him back — into quality control and player development, not into a front-office title anyone would have envied — and he found a second career there that lasted longer than the first one had.
Most of what he is remembered for in Minnesota after 1990 happened in a scouting room, a college press box or a rental car, and almost none of it has a box score.
Twenty-Eight Seasons in the Scouting Room
Studwell joined the Vikings' personnel side in 1991 and stayed for twenty-eight seasons, rising to Director of College Scouting and running the club's draft preparation through some of the most productive drafting years in its history.
The role was never glamorous. In his years directing college scouting he spent close to half of each year on the road, watching players in person rather than relying on the tape other people sent him, and he personally scouted the majority of the prospects Minnesota seriously pursued.
In 2014 he stepped back from the Director of College Scouting title, handing day-to-day leadership of the department to Jamaal Stephenson while remaining in the personnel department and a central figure in the draft process. He stayed in that capacity for five more drafts.
His final draft weekend was the 2019 NFL Draft — his 28th — and it closed on an unusually neat note: Minnesota's last selection that year was the 250th pick overall, the same slot at which the Vikings had drafted Studwell himself in 1977.
The personnel ladder
- 1 June 1991 Rehired by the Vikings, working in quality control and player development.
- 1992 Named Player Personnel Coordinator.
- 2002–2014 Director of College Scouting, responsible for the club's NFL Draft preparation.
- 2014–2019 Stepped back from the director's title; remained in the personnel department and in the draft room.
- 23 April 2019 Announced his retirement after 42 years with the organisation.
Status Check
Long-serving figures attract outdated claims. These are the ones worth getting right.
- RetiredHe no longer holds a role with the Minnesota Vikings. Studwell announced his retirement on 23 April 2019 and left the organisation that month. Any description of him as a current Vikings scout or executive is out of date.
- LivingScott Studwell is living. He remains a visible figure around the club as a Ring of Honor alumnus rather than as an employee.
- Not in CantonHe is not a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has not been elected, and he does not appear in the Hall of Fame's inductee records. The honour he holds is the Vikings' own Ring of Honor.
- Ring of HonorInducted in 2009, as the 18th member of the Vikings Ring of Honor.
- No. 55 activeHis jersey number has not been retired. The Vikings have retired six numbers — 10, 53, 70, 77, 80 and 88 — and 55 is not among them.
Status verified as of . This page states his front-office roles in the past tense deliberately; if his situation changes, this section is the part that needs updating.
The Linebackers Beside Him
- Matt BlairStudwell's linebacker team-mate from 1977 to 1985, and a Ring of Honor inductee in 2012.
- Carl EllerThe Purple People Eaters defensive end, whose 1964–1978 Minnesota run overlapped with Studwell's first two seasons.
- Ring of HonorEvery member of the Vikings Ring of Honor, with induction years and ceremony dates.
Where These Facts Come From
Every date, figure and job title on this page was checked against the sources below. Where two sources disagreed, or where a statistic is not league-official, the page says so rather than picking a number quietly. Nothing here is estimated.
- Minnesota Vikings, “Vikings Legend Scott Studwell to Retire After 42-Year Playing & Scouting Career” — retirement date, 42 years, 1,981 tackles, 230 in 1981, 24 against Detroit in 1985, Ring of Honor 2009, 50 Greatest Vikings 2010, Player Personnel Coordinator 1992.
- Minnesota Vikings, “Scott Studwell: A Life in Purple” — hire date of 1 June 1991, 28 seasons in the personnel department, the 2019 draft as his last, and the 250th-pick detail.
- Wikipedia: Scott Studwell — full name, birth date and birthplace, living status, college years, draft round and pick, jersey number, Pro Bowl seasons, honours list.
- Pro Football Reference, Scott Studwell player page — the season-by-season games, starts, interception, fumble and sack figures in the table above, and the statement that pre-1994 tackle data is unofficial and inconsistently recorded.
- Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee records — checked to confirm he is not an inductee.
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Forty-Two Years, One Building
A ninth-round linebacker who spent fourteen playing seasons in Minnesota, then continued serving the Vikings in the personnel department until 2019.
More Vikings history