Brian Moorman
Inducted 2015
Brian Moorman Born: February 5, 1976 (Wichita, KS)
Graduated: Sedgwick High School, 1995; Pittsburg State University, 1999
Few would know it, but only five players in the history of the Buffalo Bills franchise have ever been selected as a special teams player for the National Football League Pro Bowl. Of those five, only two have done it more than once. Both of those players hail from the state of Kansas and after today, both will be inductees of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Leoti native and 2005 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Inductee Steve Tasker was one. The other: Brian Moorman from Sedgwick.
An outstanding athlete from an early age, Moorman excelled for Sedgwick High School on the gridiron and the track. A three-time state champion in the hurdles, Moorman could do it all. As a football player, he was named to the All-State team as a senior defensive back while leading his classification in interceptions and punting yardage.
Following his senior season at Sedgwick, Moorman chose to take his football talents east to Pittsburg, Kansas, to play for 2013 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame coach Chuck Broyles at Pittsburg State University. Over the next four years, Moorman climbed to heights that were and remain unmatched in the heralded history of Pitt State Athletics.
On the football field, Moorman devoted all of his time to his specialty and the talent that would one day take him to the National Football League: punting. His natural talent was evident and as he focused more and more on honing that skill, the results paid huge dividends.
As a freshman, Moorman averaged 41.5 yards per punt, which placed him fourth in the nation at the Division II level. He was named to the All-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Conference team and was selected as a honorable mention All-American. As a sophomore, he again was fourth in Division II in punting average with 43.3 yards per punt and again earned all-conference and All-American honors. During Moorman’s sophomore year, he also was named to the first of three first-team Academic All-American selections.
Moorman exploded during his junior season of 1997, when he led all Division II punters in average that season with 46.0, was again named to the all-conference team, and was selected as a first-team All-American. Moorman duplicated his junior performance almost entirely the next season as he finished second in the nation in punting and again earned both all-conference and first-team All-American recognitions.
Of course, being Pittsburg State University’s first four-time football All-American is an amazing accomplishment but that was only half of the story. While Moorman was tearing up the turf inside Carnie Smith Stadium playing football, he was also setting records and winning national championships on the track that surrounded the field. As a sophomore in 1997, Moorman won the NCAA Division II National Championship in the 400 meter hurdles, a feat he would repeat as a junior and a senior. He also finished in the top six in the 110 meter hurdles as a sophomore, junior, and senior, and finished in the top five in the 55 meter hurdles as a junior and senior.
Moorman was a ten time All-American selection during his four years at Pittsburg State University and he won an astounding eight conference titles in both indoor and outdoor track. His school record in the 110 meters of 13.81 set in 1999 still stands as of 2015 and he was only the second Gorilla in school history to notch three national championships in track.
Signed as a free agent by the Seattle Seahawks following his senior year, Moorman was a bit of a journeyman punter in the NFL for his first two seasons. But, when he arrived in Buffalo, New York, to play for the Bills, Moorman found his home.
For the next eleven seasons, Brian Moorman from Sedgwick, Kansas, was the one called on to switch the field with a punt for the Bills. He ranked in the top five in the league punting yardage three times during that span and the top five in yards per punt five times during that span. In 2005 and 2006, Moorman was chosen as the AFC’s punter for the annual Pro Bowl game.
Moorman became a staple of the Bills and after a short period with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys from 2012 to 2013, Moorman returned to Buffalo to close out his career. In his first punt back with the Bills in 2013, Moorman did what he had done nearly 1,000 times during his career, stepping into a booming kick that pinned the Cincinnati Bengals on the half yard line. Not bad for the kid from Sedgwick, Kansas.