Horst Muhlmann

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Horst Herbert Erich Muhlmann (born January 2, 1940) is an American former professional football player. He was a kicker in the AFL and the NFL for nine seasons. He played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1969–1974 and the Philadelphia Eagles from 1975–1977.

Muhlmann was born in Dortmund, Germany. After high school, he worked as a bricklayer and part-time soccer player. He played as a goalkeeper for Schalke 04 from 1962 to 1966,^[1] including the first ever Bundesliga (German soccer's top league) season in 1963-1964. In 1968, he played soccer in the North American Soccer League (NASL) for Kansas City Spurs.

His professional career in American football began in 1969 with the Cincinnati Bengals when he was 29 years old. Muhlmann quickly established a reputation as one of the longest kickers in the game. On September 4, 1971, in a pre-season encounter with Green Bay, he launched each of his six kickoffs over the crossbar into the endzone denying the Packers a single kickoff return yard. Muhlmann was the first kicker since the AFL-NFL merger to connect on field goals of 50 yards or more in 3 consecutive games. This record has only been matched by three other players: Tom Dempsey (1971), Chris Bahr (1981) and Jason Elam (1996). Muhlmann held the Bengals team record for consecutive extra points (101) until it was broken by Doug Pelfrey in 1997.

Today, Muhlmann is a concessionaire at Cincinnati's Paul Brown Stadium. The Horst Muhlmann Bars are located in the North and South endzones on the Plaza level.