John Randle

John Anthony Randle (born December 12, 1967) is a former American football defensive tackle who played for the Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. On February 6, 2010 he was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Born in Mumford, Texas, Randle was raised poor, and worked odd jobs when he was young. His brother Ervin Randle played as a linebacker for eight years. Randle played high school football in Hearne, Texas. He started his college playing career at Trinity Valley Community College, before transferring to Texas A&M University–Kingsville.

Early NFL career

Randle went undrafted; he tried out for his brother's team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but was thought to be too small, and was not signed to a contract. The 6'1" 287-lbs. defensive linemen was picked up by the Vikings after the draft on the recommendation by Head Scout Don Deisch, playing his first season in 1990. He went to his first Pro Bowl in 1993 after recording 11.5 sacks, and was quickly becoming one of the dominant defensive tackles of his era. Once Henry Thomas left the Vikings, Randle increased his training regimen, and became well known for his disarming on-field heckling of opposing players. Randle would record double digit sacks during nine different seasons, including a career-high and league-leading 15.5 sacks in 1997.

John K. Randle

John K. Randle (1 February 1855 – 27 February 1928) was a West African doctor who was active in politics in Lagos, now in Nigeria, in the colonial era. Born in Sierra Leone, he was one of the first West Africans to qualify as a doctor in the United Kingdom. On return he worked for the Lagos Colony colonial medical service for a while, then left due to discrimination and built up a successful private practice, treating both Europeans and Africans. He co-founded the People's Union in 1908, a political association that sometimes opposed government measures. During World War I (1914–18) he was loyal to the British Empire. In post-war politics the conservative People's Union was not a serious competitor to the more radical Nigerian National Democratic Party.

Early years

John K. Randle was born on 1 February 1855, son of Thomas Randle, a liberated slave from an Oyo village in the west of what is now Nigeria. His father later moved to Lagos and set up a successful business as a haberdasher. Randle's birthplace of Regent, Sierra Leone was a settlement of liberated slaves. Most of them, including his parents, were Yoruba people. He was educated at the missionary school in the village and then at the Church Mission Society grammar school in Freetown. He became a "dispenser" at the Colonial Hospital in 1874. He moved to Accra, then on the Gold Coast, where he saved enough to pay for formal medical training at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland between 1884 and 1888, graduating with a gold medal in materia medica. Randle and his fellow-student Obadiah Johnson obtained positions in 1889 as Assistant Colonial Surgeons in the Lagos Colonial Hospital. At the same time, Randle practiced privately, treating most of the European traders of Lagos, particularly the Germans.

John Randle (disambiguation)

John Randle may refer to: