Gary Hogeboom starred in basketball and football at Northview High, played quarterback in the wishbone offense and set records at Central Michigan University before being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys and playing for 11 years in the NFL.
He earned the starting job at CMU by his junior season and led the team to a 9-2 record, which set up his senior season in 1979. That year the Chippewas went undefeated (10-0-1) to earn the Mid-American Conference title. Hogeboom was named the league’s top offensive player and first-team All-MAC. He finished his college career with 3,088 passing yards and 19 touchdown passes to go with 957 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns. At one point he was the all-time leader at CMU in career total offense, passing yards and completed passes.
The Dallas Cowboys made him their fifth-round pick in the 1980 NFL draft. He played a back-up roll before becoming a starter in 1984. In 1986 he was traded during the 1986 draft to Indianapolis where he played for three seasons before becoming a free agent. He then played one year with Phoenix, posting career-highs of 2,591 passing yards and 14 touchdowns in a 5-8 season. He was waived by a new coaching regime in the fall of 1990 and signed with Washington. In 11 seasons he passed for 9,346 yards and 49 touchdowns and rushed for 164 yards and four more touchdowns.
Hogeboom went into real-estate development with family members and lived in Grand Haven after his football career.
He made national news in 2005 appearing under a secret identity on the CBS reality TV show Survivor: Guatemala. He claimed he was a landscaper named Gary Hawkins to avoid being eliminated quickly by other competitors who might think as a former NFL player he was wealthy.
Hogeboom is also in the CMU Athletics Hall of Fame and the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame.