CEDAR FALLS, IOWA — Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner is among eight former University of Northern Iowa athletes announced Thursday as 2026 inductees into the school's athletics hall of fame. A committee convenes each year to select inductees for the hall of fame.

Warner was a member of four straight conference championship teams at Northern Iowa and served as the Panthers' starting quarterback as a senior in 1993. After college, he attended training camp with the Green Bay Packers and was cut. He then stocked shelves at a Cedar Falls grocery store and played for three years for the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena Football League.

He led NFL Europe in touchdowns and passing yards in 1998 and joined the St. Louis Rams that same year. Warner became the Rams' starting quarterback in 1999 and led the team's "Greatest Show on Turf" offense to a Super Bowl victory over the Tennessee Titans in 2000, earning the game's Most Valuable Player award. He reached the Super Bowl again with the Rams in 2002 and with the Arizona Cardinals in 2009.

Warner's NFL career lasted 12 years and ended after the 2009 season. He won one Super Bowl and played in two others. He was voted the AP NFL MVP in 1999 and 2001, and his career passing average of 260.8 yards per game ranks 11th. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

A Northern Iowa spokesman said Warner's absence from the athletics hall of fame until now was not an oversight. Warner had limited contact with the university in the years after he left, according to a 2009 story in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

In 2021, Northern Iowa and its trademark licensing agency partnered with Warner and his agency Priority Sports to develop and launch a merchandise line celebrating his legacy. Also in 2021, the movie "American Underdog," about Warner's life, was released. Warner lives in Arizona.