Donald Clement Klosterman (January 18, 1930 – June 7, 2000) was one of professional football's most accomplished executives, building teams in three different leagues after a serious accident ended his playing career as a quarterback and left his legs partially paralyzed. In the 1960s, Klosterman helped the American Football League (AFL, 1960–1969) overtake the National Football League (NFL) during the bidding wars that led the older league to seek a merger with the AFL. In the 1970s, he was a successful general manager for the NFL's Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams, and in the 1980s he signed all-American quarterback Steve Young to a stunning contract for the Los Angeles Express in the United States Football League (USFL).
Early life and playing career
Klosterman was a German American born in Le Mars, Iowa, the 12th of 15 children. As a youth, he moved to Compton, California with his family. He was collegiate football's leading passer in 1951, for Loyola University of Los Angeles, now Loyola Marymount University. Drafted by the Cleveland Browns, Klosterman found himself behind Otto Graham and was traded to the Los Angeles Rams, only to back up Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield. He turned to the Canadian football, playing quarterback for the Calgary Stampeders until he had a skiing accident.
Klosterman almost lost his life on a ski slope at Banff, Alberta on Saint Patrick's Day in 1957. He tried to avoid another skier, and damaged his spinal cord when he hit a tree. He had eight surgeries and was told he would never walk again, but he regained partial feeling and with the aid of a cane and walked again within a year.
Football executive career
In 1960, Frank Leahy, the former head football coach at the University of Notre Dame, was the general manager of the AFL's Los Angeles Chargers. He asked Klosterman to help him recruit players. Klosterman joined the team and helped land future Hall of Famers Lance Alworth,along with Ernie Ladd, Ron Mix, John Hadl and Jack Kemp. He moved on to the AFL's Dallas Texans, and with them and their successors, the Kansas City Chiefs, he helped sign Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Pete Beathard, Mike Garrett and Otis Taylor, most of them important players in the Chiefs' win over the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth AFL-NFL World Championship Game. He guided the AFL's Houston Oilers to two playoff berths in his four years as their general manager (1966–1969). While in his office on November 26, 1968, he stared down a barrel of a loaded pistol held by recently released wide receiver Charles Lockhart who had argued that he was owed $13,000 by the Oilers. Also in the same room was scout Tom Williams who succeeded in wrestling the gun away. Lockhart was sentenced to 90 days in jail for carrying a pistol three months later. Klosterman declined to charge Lockhart with threatening his life.
After his four‐year contract with the Oilers expired, he was hired as general manager of the Baltimore Colts on January 6, 1970, succeeding Harry Hulmes who was demoted to an assistant position. The primary reason for the appointment was Klosterman's familiarity with the American Football League, the nucleus of the American Football Conference which the Colts were entering beginning with the 1970 season. The Colts won Super Bowl V after his first season as GM.