Athlete. This 1963 graduate of Elba High School in Howard County certainly proved what all great 
coaches know: if you have the talent, your origins, whether small town or large city, simply do not matter. Randy Rasmussen began playing eight-man football in high school along with other sports. At Kearney State College, he quickly matured as an athlete and was eventually drafted by the New York Jets professional football team. Randy Rasmussen played for fifteen years in the pros as a lineman. His great effort of blocking for quarterback Joe Namath in the 1969 Super Bowl Game helped achieve an unexpected victory for the underdog Jets that year. Whether playing for the Elba High Bluejays, the Kearney State Antelopes or the New York Jets, this athlete could play and stay with the very best.
“Football is football whether it is played with, six, eight or 11 men. One thing I do believe,” he said in 1983, “No young man should ever be denied the right to play, no matter where he lives, small or large town. And no matter how it is played, it comes down to blocking and tackling. Without them, it isn’t football.”
