Missouri State

MIKE ARMENTROUT
Football, 1981-84
Inducted February 6, 1999

Mike Armentrout was a premier performer in the defensive secondary for the Missouri State University football Bears, starting and lettering four years in a row from the 1981 season through the 1984 campaign. His career spanned the end of the Bears' NCAA Division II days and the start of MSU participation in the Mid-Continent Conference at the I-AA level. Armentrout came to MSU from Elgin, Ill., and started 37 of the 42 MSU games in which he played over his four seasons. Playing for MSU head coach Rich Johanningmeier, Armentrout helped the Bears win records in 1983 and 1984 in the Bears' second and third seasons competing at the I-AA level. The Bears finished second in the league in 1983 and Armentrout served as a team co-captain on a ballclub for 6-3-1 his senior season. Armentrout was voted a Mid-Continent all-conference first team selection each of his last three seasons, and he was on the Mid-Continent academic all-conference team three consecutive years. He was selected for the Associated Press I-AA All-America honorable mention list in 1983 and received All-America honorable mention from The Sporting News in 1984. Armentrout was a second team CoSIDA Academic All-America selection in 1984. On the field, Armentrout intercepted five passes over the last three games of his junior season in 1983 to finish with 10 interceptions for the season. That total established MSU and Mid-Continent single season records and was the best mark of any I-AA player in the nation, giving MSU its first individual national statistical leader in football. Armentrout also had three fumble recoveries in one 1983 game and led MSU in that department for the season. He led MSU in interceptions again in 1984 on his way to a career school record total of 18. He was the team's primary punt returner each of last three seasons and was among the team leaders in total tackles each year. Armentrout finished with career totals of 302 tackles, 18 passes broken up, and seven recoveries. Further, Armentrout was voted the MSU Coors Player of the Year for the 1983 season and he was selected for an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship at the time he received his undergraduate degree from MSU in 1984.