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Thursday, June 8, 2000
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| Former
GM Don Klosterman’s career
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| Don
Klosterman, a general manager in three professional football leagues with such teams as
the San Diego Chargers, Houston Oilers, Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams, died earlier
this week at the age of 70. A former pro quarterback, Klosterman was involved in the
growth of the American Football League with the Chargers in the 1960s, prior to the AFL
merger with the NFL. Sid Gillman, who coached the Chargers in the ’60s, said he hired
Klosterman to evaluate football talent.
"He was a terrific talent scout, very astute," Gillman said Wednesday from
his Carlsbad, Calif., home. "He sure was a people's person. We were always good
friends, and he will be missed.''
Moving from Baltimore to Los Angeles when the teams swapped owners, Klosterman was the
Rams' vice president and general manager in Los Angeles from 1972 to ’80.
In the early ’80s, he became the president and general manager of the Los Angeles
Express of the United States Football League, where the ownership gave him an open
pocketbook. Among the stars Klosterman signed were QB Steve Young. After the USFL folded,
Young moved to the NFL and eventual stardom with the San Francisco 49ers.
ProFootballWeekly.com asked contributing editor Joel Buchsbaum to reflect on
Klosterman’s career.
Q: Can you put Don Klosterman’s career in perspective?
Buchsbaum: Klosterman was one of the great GMs in football until near the end of his
career, when he got a little bit soft and maybe a little bit lazy. But he was a great
builder of teams, and he was a master at the art of trades. He was on the other end of the
great John Hadl deal, which netted the Rams all those first-round draft picks for Hadl, a
declining quarterback who was sent to Green Bay. (Klosterman) made a similar deal with the
Eagles for Roman Gabriel. As a result, the Rams’ teams that he built were always in
the running. If they had just won one Super Bowl when Klosterman was there, he probably
would have received the recognition that he deserved. |
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The Archives
1999 - 2000 Season |
| Online writers — features and
columns by our PFW staff, columnists, AFC reporters, NFC reporters and contributing
writers |
| College football — articles,
college notepad, key college game previews, PFW's college top 10 |
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| Free-agency |
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| Handicapper's Corner —
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| "A closer look" —
in-depth analysis of general football topics |
| "In our opinion" daily columns
— opinions on general football topics |
| "PFW spins" —
short-takes on current events |
| Joel Buchsbaum — college
player evaluations, NFL player analysis, NFL draft coverage, NFL notepad, NFList, Q and
A's, college game previews and other NFL articles by PFW's contributing editor |
| NFL Draft — player evaluations,
printouts, feature stories, commentaries, draft recaps |
| Ron Pollack — articles and
commentary by PFW's editor-in-chief |
| Season in review —
the 1999-2000 NFL season |
| XFL — a new football league begins |
|
