After an illustrious 14-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals, All-Pro cornerback Roger Wehrli announced his retirement on December 23, 1982, effective at the end of the season.

The veteran had played sparingly during the season as the Cardinals had decided to go with younger options, and Wehrli saw the writing on the wall.

“It’s a hard decision to make,” he said. “I had 14 good years with the Cardinals but this was the time to announce it. I’m still contributing, and I would like to go out as someone still contributing.”

“He epitomizes the word class,” head coach Jim Hanifan said, “not only as a player but as a man. In his 14-year career, he has to be regarded as one of the great cornerbacks in the history of the game.”

“I’d have to say he’s the best all-around athlete I’ve seen on this team since I’ve been here,” said Dan Dierdorf.

After starring at Missouri as a defensive back and one of the nation’s leading punt returners, Wehrli was the Cardinals’ first-round draft pick in 1969. He secured a starting job his rookie season and played in 130 straight games with the Big Red. Among his most notable achievements were 40 career interceptions and 22 fumble recoveries, a franchise record for non-quarterbacks.

“Hopefully, I’ll be remembered as one of the best cornerbacks the Cardinals have had and somebody who gave 100 percent,” said Wehrli.

Wehrli earned many awards for his accomplishments off the field as well, such as the Camp Wyman Good Neighbor Award from the St. Louis area Kiwanis in 1977, the Chuck Drulis Award in 1978 for activities on behalf of the March of Dimes, Multiple Sclerosis Society and Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Paul Christman Award for civic and athletic achievement. He also worked with the Easter Seals and Missouri K.I.D.S.

“I tried to be a good example for kids in the area. I do a lot of work for certain things. I’ve always felt it was important to put out an image that at least was not negative.”

Wehrli’s said his family was very supportive of his decision to leave the game.

“It’s not something I dreamed about as a kid,” he said of his pro career. “Being from a small town (King City, MO), I didn’t really follow professional sports that much. It’s not something I dreamed about; it just evolved. I took the opportunities when they came.”

For 14 seasons, Wehrli played one of the sports cruelest positions.

“It is the toughest position,” he said, “maybe not from a physical standpoint, but the physical skills of covering receivers are enormous.”

“And they changed the rules a couple of years ago and took away any edge we may have had, such as bumping a receiver or knocking him around downfield.”

“If passes are completed for a touchdown, the blame is placed on the cornerback.”

Wehrli remembered fondly the 38-0 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in 1970 and he recalled the times he intercepted passes by another famous Roger, as in Staubach.

But he also had not-so-pleasant memories, such as being burned on a fluke Danny White to Tony Hill pass for a game-winning touchdown in a 27-24 loss to the Cowboys in 1980.

“I like to put those things out of my mind,” he said.

How did Wehrli recover from bad games?

“You have to go out with the attitude you’re going to to give it all you’ve got and whatever happens, happens,” he said.

“The games are so well publicized and written about and hashed over and over, the fans may have more trouble forgetting a bad play than players do,” As long as you’re out there, doing it, you can’t be thinking about what happened before.”

“If something bad happens, you have to realize there was a reason for it. The guy you were going against was a great athlete, too.”

Wehrli provided a storybook ending to his career just a few days after he announced his retirement.

It was the regular season home finale at Busch Stadium against the New York Giants, a game the Cardinals had to win to reach the postseason.

Late in the first quarter of a scoreless game, the Cardinals lined up for a short Neil O’Donoghue field goal attempt. But O’Donoghue’s foot never touched the ball.

“Through the films this week, we’d decided that the fake possibly was there,” Wehrli said. “And just at the last second, as were going onto the field, the coach (Hanifan) said, ‘The fake’s up.'”

Wehrli took the snap and raced 18 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown.

“It took a lot of guts to call that play,” he said. “We had a pretty sure field goal there, but Coach thought we needed some momentum going, and that got it going.”

The Cardinals went on to a 24-21 victory and secured their postseason berth. Box Score.

“It’s a great feeling to go out with your last time in the stadium,” said Wehrli. “It’s a good feeling. The fans have always been really good to me, and I was happy to be able to do something like that in St. Louis.”

The fans were always good to Roger Wehrli, and Roger Wehrli was always good to the fans.