As our countdown to the season ticks ever closer, we honored the career of Kyle Kosier to mark 69 days until the start of the Big 12 title defense. With 68 days to go, we step back in time to the 1970's to honor a defensive force in Tim Petersen.
A product of Ajo High School, Petersen arrived in Tempe as a freshman in 1973. After redshirting the 1973 season and seeing limited action in 1974, Tim came in to his own at the linebacker position in 1975.
Petersen ranked second on the Sun Devils with 135 tackles, forming a dynamic duo with Larry Gordon (team-leading 150 tackles) in the middle of the defense as the Devils would finish the season 12-0, capped off with a win over Nebraska in the 1976 Fiesta Bowl and a claim at the national championship (despite no claim by the university) according to Sporting News and the National Championship Foundation.
After the departure of Gordon to the NFL, Petersen entered the 1976 season as the mainstay at linebacker. While the Devils endured a challenging 4-7 season, Petersen would go on to record 122 tackles on the season, and was honored as the most improved player of the 1976 season.
Returning for his senior season in 1977, Tim led the Devils in tackling once again, recording 114 tackles and adding four interceptions in 11 games, helping the Devils to a Western Athletic Conference championship in their final season before moving to the Pac-10.
For his efforts throughout the season, Tim was the recipient of the ASU Glenn Hawkins Sportsmanship Award, named first-team All-WAC, and was an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press. He would leave Arizona State ranked 4th all time in tackles with 371 for his career.
Petersen was drafted in the 9th round (No. 242 overall) of the 1978 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. While he did not see any playing time in the NFL, he was an offseason member of the 1978 Patriots who would win their first AFC East division championship since the AFL-NFL Merger in 1970.
After an offseason stint with the Washington Redskins in 1979 and a return to the Patriots in the offseason in 1980, Tim hung his cleats up for good, pursuing his career in the mining industry. Living up to Arizona State's status of being No. 1 in Innovation, Peterson submitted and holds a patent for an apparatus for retrieving and teeing golf balls, held since December of 1999.
A quietly dominant member of some memorable Sun Devil teams, Tim's post-Arizona State career did not lead him to the professional ranks, but that makes him no less worthy of inclusion in this year's Spotlight Series.