| No. 15 | |
| Quarterback | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth: February 17, 1959 | |
| Place of birth: Portland, Oregon | |
| Career information | |
| College: Portland State | |
| NFL Draft: 1981 / Round: 2 / Pick: 33 | |
| No regular season or postseason appearances | |
| Career history | |
| * St. Louis / Phoenix Cardinals (1981–1988) | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| * 2× Pro Bowl (1984, 1987) | |
| TD–INT | 136–90 |
| Yards | 22,771 |
| QB Rating | 82.7 |
| Stats at NFL.com | |
| Stats at pro-football-reference.com | |
| College Football Hall of Fame | |
Neil Vincent Lomax (born February 17, 1959) is a former American football quarterback.
College career[]
Lomax was a standout college player at Portland State University, going from fifth-string freshman quarterback on partial scholarship to emergency starter to NCAA legend. By the end of his college career, Neil Lomax held 90 NCAA records, including one game where he threw for seven touchdown passes in a single quarter. He also had a game against Northern Colorado in 1979 where he was 44/77 for 499 yards passing. As of 2012, that game ranks 4th all-time at Portland State for yards thrown in a game. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications in 1981.
- 1977: 102/181 for 1,670 yards with 18 TD vs 5 INT.
- 1978: 241/436 for 3,506 yards with 26 TD vs 22 INT.
- 1979: 299/516 for 3,950 yards with 26 TD vs 16 INT.
- 1980: 296/473 for 4,094 yards with 37 TD vs 12 INT.
Professional career[]
He was drafted fifth by the then-St. Louis Cardinals in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft. Despite his college heroics, he had an up-and-down 9-year career for some very mediocre Cardinals teams, displaying brilliance in his two Pro Bowl years (1984 and 1987), but also occasionally playing poorly enough to be benched.
In his first season in 1981, he played in 14 games while starting seven of them (with 15-year veteran Jim Hart starting the other nine), going 4-3 while throwing four touchdowns and ten interceptions while passing for 1,575 yards on a 50.4 completion percentage. In the strike-shortened nine game season of 1982, Lomax started every game, passing for 1,367 yards for five touchdowns and six interceptions while having a 53.2 completion percentage. Lomax started the playoff game that the Cardinals had against the Green Bay Packers, throwing 32-of-51 for 385 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, but the Cardinals lost 41–16. It was his only playoff appearance.
Lomax started thirteen games the following year while Hart started the other three. He went 7-5-1 while throwing for 2,636 yards with 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions for a 59.0% completion percentage, but the team failed to return to the postseason after finishing 8-7-1 after starting the season 1-5.
For 1984, he started every game, and he had his best season yet, throwing for 4,614 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions on a 61.6% completion percentage, all career highs. His passing yards rank 20th all-time for a season. He was named to the Pro Bowl that year. Although the Cardinals finished 9-7, the head-to-head record with the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys (for which the Cardinals went a combined 2-2 against) meant that St. Louis lost out on a playoff spot. Lomax started in each game again in 1985, but the team went 5-11, with him throwing 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on 3,214 yards and a 56.3% completion percentage. For 1986, Lomax started 14 games while Cliff Stoudt started the other two, with the former going 4-9-1 over the latter's 0-2 record. He threw for 2,583 yards while having 13 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on a 57.0% completion percentage. The following season was both Lomax's penultimate year as a Cardinal and the final one for the team in St. Louis. He started in 12 games, with Shawn Halloran (who started two games and went 1-1) and Sammy Garza (who started one game and losing it) doing the others; Lomax went 6-6 while throwing for 3,387 yards with 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions for a 59.4% completion percentage. He was named to the Pro Bowl that year. In his final year in 1988, he started 14 games (while Cliff Stoudt started two others) and went 7-7, throwing for 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions for 3,395 yards and a 57.6 completion percentage.
He was forced to retire before the 1990 season due to a severely arthritic hip. In 1991, he underwent hip replacement surgery. He finished with a career record of 47-52-2, 136 touchdowns, and over 22,000 yards passing, with those categories (along with completions and attempts) being 2nd most as a Cardinal, next to Hart.
After football[]
Lomax is the president of ProMax Event Management and an avid golfer. For the 2005 OSAA Football season, Lomax served as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for the Tigard High School Tigers in Tigard, Oregon. He was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996. In 2008 he began working with the Roosevelt Rough Riders, where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under head coach Christian Swain. Lomax was then hired as the quarterbacks coach for Tualatin High School in Tualatin Oregon. On March 21, 2018, Lomax was announced as the new head football coach at Fort Vancouver high school in Vancouver, Washington.
Personal[]
Lomax and his wife Laurie live in Lake Oswego, Oregon.[1] They have four children: the oldest, Nick, was a quarterback at Boise State; his daughter Ali played basketball at Westmont College, his second son, Jack, was a quarterback at Lake Oswego High School and at Oregon State; and his youngest son Mitch played for Lake Oswego Little League's Oregon state championship baseball team and Lake Oswego's Oregon state championship football team.[1][2]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "ProMax Founder Neil Lomax biography". ProMax Event Management. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070928203141/http://www.videas.net/promaxevents/lomax.htm. Retrieved August 9, 2007.
- ↑ Tenorio, Gina (August 9, 2007). "Baseball and barbecue do mix; Civitan LL hosts Oregon champs". San Bernardino Sun. http://www.sbsun.com/search/ci_6552995. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
External links[]
- Template:Oregon Encyclopedia
Template:St. Louis Cardinals 1981 draft navbox
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