Former Cardinals great Jim Bakken named to Hall of Very Good

The Hall of Very Good has announced their Class of 2026, and a Cardinals familiar face was included: kicker Jim Bakken. He will join nine other pro football players.

Bakken was a roster member of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1962 to 1978 and played 17 years before hanging up his cleats. Today, he is 85 years old and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

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The Hall of Very Good (HOVG) is a secondary Hall as part of the membership of the Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA). Each year, members recommend players for that year’s Hall, then the list is whittled down to 20 names. From there, 10 players are voted in.

LINK: HALL OF VERY GOOD

The purpose of the HOVG is to recognize pro football players who had excellent careers, but just not be good enough to be nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Numerous players have been elected to the HOVG and then later were indeed inducted into the Hall of Fame at a later date.

Including Bakken, 10 Cardinal players are now enshrined into the HOVG: RB O.J. Anderson, HB John David Crow, S Pat Fischer, HB Marshall Goldberg, DE Ken Gray, FB Pat Harder, OT Duke Slater, DB Abe Woodson, and coach Don Coryell.

Bakken grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and played basketball, baseball, and was the quarterback on his high school’s football team. He then went to the University of Wisconsin and shared the QB position, but was the team’s punter and kicker. He was named Honorable Mention All-Big 10 in his sophomore year as both punter and kicker.

He led the Big 10 in punting average in his junior and senior seasons. His longest field goal was 47-yards.

Kickers and punters are drafted in today’s NFL, usually on Day 3. A lot of really good specialists go undrafted that become really good kickers. K Adam Vinatieri is in the 2026 Hall of Fame and went undrafted. The 1962 NFL draft was 20 rounds, so teams routinely selected punters and kickers. This was also a time when there were very few specialists in the NFL. The punter was usually a quarterback or a safety while the kickers were almost always an offensive lineman. Long snappers did not exist as a stand-alone position, so this task was performed by the center or a tight end. It was not uncommon for several players to take on these “extra duties.”

Bakken was chosen by the Los Angeles Rams in Round 7 of the 1962 NFL draft.

He was a last cutdown casualty of the Rams training camp, and the St. Louis Cardinals put in a waiver claim on him. Veteran Danny Villanueva covered all kicking duties, and Bakken wasn’t able to unseat him. Both players were straight-away style placekickers.

For St. Louis in 1961, the kicking duties were the job of offensive tackle Gerry Perry, whereas strong safety Jerry Norton was the team’s punter.

In 1962, there were just eight coaches on NFL teams, and the roster limit was 36 players. Coaching staffs did not want to have a kicker or punter take up valuable space on their roster, so other players took on these jobs. But in 1962, Bakken became the first Cardinals rostered specialist.

In his third season, he went 25-38 in field goals and 40-40 in PATs. His field goal attempts and converted field goals led the NFL in 1964. The following season he led the league in field goal percentage with 67.7% and was named to his first Pro Bowl.

In all, Bakken went to four Pro Bowls, was selected First Team All-Pro twice, and was the NFL scoring leader in 1967 (117). In addition, he was later named to the “NFL 1960s All-Decade Team” and the “NFL 1970s All-Decade Team.”

His nickname was “Bags” because his teammates referred to him as “money in the bank.”

He also had great success in his latter years. In his 13th season, he went 19-24 on field goals and 40-41 on PATs and was voted to his third Pro Bowl. The following season, he was again named to the Pro Bowl by going 20-27 on field goals and 33-35 on PATs.

In addition, Bakken had 65 NFL punts for 2,439 yards with an average of 36.8 yards per kick and a long of 56 yards.

The 2026 HOVG is his fourth Hall of Fame honor. He was inducted into the “Madison (Wisconsin) Sports Hall of Fame” in 1984, was inducted into the “University of Wisconsin Athletic Department-National W Club Hall of Fame” in 2001, and the ”St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame” in 2015.

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LINK: PFRA HOMEPAGE

The remainder of the 2026 HOVG class includes Nate Newton, Clem Daniels, Charley Brock, Mike Stratton, Wilber Marshall, Kent Hull, George Christensen, Greg Lloyd, and Chris Hinton.

After football, Bakken was hired as director of external relations at the University of Wisconsin’s athletic department until he retired. He was a seven-time Wisconsin State Masters Handball Doubles champion (1991-97).

In 2010, probably his greatest honor was the annual trophy given to the Big-10’s best kicker, which is named the “Bakken-Andersen Kicker of the Year” award. It is co-named after former Michigan State kicker Morten Andersen, who played 25 years in the NFL with five different clubs.

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