Kurt's story is a great story about how an ordinary guy overcame challenges and obstacles to become an extraordinary quarterback in the National Football League. There's a couple beautiful clips of #65, the offensive center of the Iowa Barnstormers (a.k.a. David Bush) hiking the ball to Kurt and dominating the competition (at 2:20 and 3:11 into the video) but it takes a keen eye to spot!
It's fun to be part of his great story and to have known him when he was still just an ordinary football player following his dreams. Kurt's passion for football was obvious but he was not someone who had everything going for him. He didn't become the starting quarterback for his college football team (University of Northern Iowa) until his senior season and while playing for the Iowa Barnstormers of the arena football league he was actually benched because of his inability to produce results.
There were many more obstacles that came into his path before he got his break to start in the NFL like his wife's parents being killed in a tornado or injuries that prevented him from trying out for teams when they called. The fact is he never gave up. If his story says anything to you it should remind you that despite all odds...never give up on your dreams.
I worked with Kurt in Cedar Falls, Iowa for the better part of a year and got to know him fairly well. We were in a night stock position for Hy Vee. We never worked days, thats when he worked out. He was always a great guy and I kept in contact with him until about 1997 when he was playing for the Iowa Barnstormers. After work was done we would go over to the PEC in Cedar Falls and he would throw us passes and we would dive into the pole vault pads after catching his lasers. We were sometimes a little wired from working through the night. I was his favorite receiver in 94-95 night stock crew. Like I said I am glad he made it the way he has. -Great Job Kurt!
-Russ in Denver
Posted by: russ | October 25, 2009 at 10:56 PM