Members
Inductee
DILGER, KEN
DILGER, KEN
Born on
Inducted On
October 2, 2022
Location Inducted
Heritage Hills
Region Number
9
Heritage Hills High School
Player
Heritage Hill High School
1989
Dilger was a 6'5" QB in high school and received a scholarship to play at the University of Illinois. The Illini decided to put some mass on Dilger and make him a Tight End.
University of Illinois
1994
Ken was a 4-year letterman and a 3-year starter at Illinois. He was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention at tight end in 1991. Ken was All-Big Ten 2nd Team and Liberty Bowl Champion in 1994. For his college career, he had 89 receptions for 1,073 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Ken and his wife, Heidi ran the Dilger foundation from 1995-2005 and raised over $500,000 for local children's charities. Over the years, Ken has remained a supporter of Heritage Hills football, his community and football in the state of Indiana.
Ken and his wife, Heidi have two children, Jessica and Zach
Ken was drafted 48th overall (2nd round) by the Indianapolis Colts in 1995. He played for the Colts from 1995-2001. In 1995, he was named to the NFL Rookie Team. In 2001, Ken was a Pro Bowl selection at TE for the AFC. From 2002-2004 he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was a member of the 2002 Super Bowl Champions. In 156 games, he had 356 receptions for 4099 yards and 24 touchdowns.
There was definitely something in the water in the 1980s in Mariah Hill, Indiana. The small community did not have a stop light, but it did have amazing football talent. Ken Dilger graduated from Heritage Hills High School in 1989. He grew up watching Bruce King (Purdue University, KC Chiefs, Buffalo Bills) whose family lived a few football field lengths from Dilger's home in Mariah Hill.
Legendary offensive line coach, Howard Mudd raved about Dilger's blocking as a Colts TE, a piece of information that is valuable to a football coach but is hard to quantify on a stat line.
After Ken's retirement from the NFL, he worked for 14 years for WISH-TV NFLCountdown to Kick-Off as an analyst.