When your dad is a former NFL defensive back, there is going to be a fair amount of post-game analysis when driving home from youth football games. Just ask Nick and Matt Guggemos. Rarely did the Guggemos brothers get away with glossing over their mistakes. After all, their dad, retired Minnesota Viking and University of St. Thomas Athletics Hall of Famer Neal Guggemos, doubled as their personal coach.

“There was a healthy amount of discussion – what went right, what went wrong,” Matt Guggemos said, recalling his childhood. “Playing for my dad, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that fueled my passion for football even further.”

This fall, as the younger brother, Matt will play a final season of college ball at St. Thomas. The conversations between the Guggemos boys and their father have matured.

“Dad definitely knows the limit and stays below it,” Matt said. “We still love talking about the game, but the way we talk about things has gotten more advanced. It’s clear he respects my coaches and enjoys that I’m learning high-level football.”

Dad has many reasons to respect the Tommie coaches. For one, he had firsthand experience.

Neal Guggemos ’86 stepped onto the St. Thomas campus as a student-athlete in 1982 and quickly broke records as a Tommie football and track star. Named a College Football News All-American in 1986, he also helped lead the Tommies to the 1985 D-III Men’s Track and Field Championship. He’s remained a stalwart supporter of St. Thomas ever since.

“It’s been such a fun ride,” Neal Guggemos said. “It was a privilege to play here, but it’s also been a crazy, wild ride as a parent and fan.”

While his accomplishments at St. Thomas were numerous (chief among them, meeting and marrying wife and fellow Tommie, Julie ’87), many Minnesotans will recognize the Guggemos name from Minnesota Vikings’ broadcasts.

Just weeks after his senior year wrapped up in 1986, Guggemos signed with the Vikings as a free agent. The finance major would go on to enjoy four years in the NFL, first in Minnesota and then with the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills.

“Knowing he was in the NFL, he was always a little bit of a superhero to me,” son Matt Guggemos said.

Matt and siblings, Nick and Alexa, grew up hearing tales from their father’s time on the field. And no tale is more epic than Neal’s transformation from student to pro.

On his final play for St. Thomas, the elder Guggemos caught a game-winning interception to defeat Macalester College inside the Metrodome. Two years later, back in the Metrodome and on his first play for the Vikings, the NFL rookie would catch an interception in the same exact spot.

“The local news writers, some of whom had covered me in college, had a lot of questions about that,” Guggemos said with a chuckle. “To make those two back-to-back big plays in the dome, it was a fairy tale time for me.”

Neal’s professional success fueled a new generation of Guggemos to play football, and eventually, gave rise to NFL dreams.

“When I was very young, my dad had given me a little toy football that sang the Vikings’ fight song,” Nick said. “That stuck with me for as long as I could remember.”

During their childhood, Nick and Matt would spend considerable time throwing a ball around their Eden Prairie backyard with their dad (something they still do on a regular basis). That early exposure to the game led to a legendary youth football dynasty (the Guggemos teams rarely lost a game), which then led to high school careers for both boys at Benilde-St. Margaret’s.

When it came time for each brother in turn to choose a college – Mom and Dad tried to stay neutral, even with a very purple elephant in the room. And for a while, it wasn’t looking good for a second generation of St. Thomas alumni.

Just months before his first semester, eldest son Nick was still buying red merchandise and preparing to spend his collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Meanwhile, younger brother Matt even spent three years at the University of Minnesota.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Nick ’19 and Matt ’24 would graduate bleeding purple.

“We never tried to put any pressure on them,” Neal said. “It certainly wasn’t something I had fully envisioned, but I can’t help but feel a little pride knowing they both ended up on the field at St. Thomas.”

Learning life’s lessons

For Nick, the mechanical engineering program at St. Thomas proved too rewarding to pass up. With an eye on an engineering degree and hopes of playing college football, St. Thomas head coach Glenn Caruso was more than happy to find him a spot on the roster.

But Nick’s time inside O’Shaughnessy Stadium was far from what he had imagined. The tight end was slowed by injuries and caught just one pass in his college years with St. Thomas. In the end, however, a slow start marked the beginning of a hard-fought comeback.

“What my time at St. Thomas taught me was how to work together as a team to solve problems and fight through adversity,” Nick said. “And it definitely taught me how to stay persistent and work hard.”

“That’s life,” Coach Glenn Caruso said. “One of the things that I loved about Nick was watching him learn through his experiences with us … And that’s what wakes me up and gets me out of bed every morning – is knowing that our program provides a different kind of education – one that prepares our guys for the trials and tribulations of life on and off the field.”

After graduation, Nick Guggemos took a job as a mechanical engineer, but he never gave up on his dream to play professional ball. The Tommie alum worked tirelessly to transform his body, and quickly put himself on the radar of several NFL teams. In 2021, Guggemos signed a contract with the Seattle Seahawks, becoming the first St. Thomas alum to make an NFL practice squad or regular-season roster since 1999.

“There are a lot of bright guys in the league, but there aren’t too many that have been busy working as engineers,” said Neal Guggemos, who relied on his own finance degree to drive a post-NFL career at U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. “I was so incredibly proud of the fact that he had his college degree, had worked as a professional in his field, and that he could pursue his NFL dreams at the same time.”

Nick would go on to sign with four additional NFL teams in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Green Bay and Buffalo. Father Neal was with him every step of the way – at least, by phone.

“There were a lot of phone calls,” Nick said. “Dad helped me learn my playbooks, memorizing and learning hundreds of different terms for plays, formations, shifts, etc. Having those daily calls, having him quiz me on those playbooks, that really helped me hit the field every day feeling prepared and confident.”

To this day, Nick stays in shape – hitting the gym and throwing a ball around with his dad – all while working as a medical device engineer at Integer Holdings in Plymouth, Minnesota.

Academic and athletic success

After enjoying three years on the roster at the University of Minnesota, Matt Guggemos, too, felt the pull of a St. Thomas education. When his football commitments in Minneapolis had started competing too heavily with his physics class schedule, he entered the transfer portal.

Coach Caruso promised St. Thomas would accommodate and promote his academic and football education.

“When Matthew transferred here our conversations were less about whether he could cover a wide receiver, and more about the holistic growth of a young man,” Caruso said. “I think that speaks to our reputation in the market as an institution that appreciates the balance of your education and your athletic education, and what, together, those can provide you.”

After graduating in May 2024 with his Bachelor of Arts in physics and a minor in mechanical engineering, Matt is continuing at St. Thomas to pursue a graduate certificate in medical device development. While he’s on campus, he’ll hit the football field one more time as a Tommie.

“Ultimately, it was really important to me to get the degree I wanted and also have the opportunity to play football,” Matt Guggemos said. “It’s felt really cool being able to follow in my dad and my brother’s footsteps – to have that family legacy and their continued support. I’m very glad I ended up here.”

Watching his family grow up alongside his alma mater

Family patriarch Neal beams with pride when talking about his sons finding their way to St. Thomas.

“To watch Matt join Nick at St. Thomas, and for them to have the opportunities they did, it just makes me, and my wife, proud,” Guggemos said.

Now in his fifth decade as a Tommie – Neal remains unabashedly enthusiastic about the University of St. Thomas. Neal and wife Julie are regular donors to the football team and other programs, including the Racial Justice Initiative.

As Neal has watched his own children grow, he’s also watched St. Thomas evolve from a small liberal arts college into a nationally recognized Catholic institution.

“When I played in D-III, it was a great opportunity to get a good education and also participate in sports,” Guggemos said. “The simple fact that they’re continuing to offer that same quality education as a D-I school is really awesome and a great sign for the future.”

Coach Caruso credits Guggemos as one of the driving factors for their successful transition to D-I in 2021.

“Neal is a guy who has always been present around St. Thomas Athletics, as a player, an NFL player, and now as an alum,” Caruso said. “When you look at our transition to D-I and the successes we’re experiencing, it goes back to having people like Neal who are grateful for their time here and who are willing to give back any way they can.”

As Neal Guggemos likes to say every year, the family is buckling in for “one more year” of Tommie Football. The whole family – Neal, Julie, Nick, and daughter Alexa – will be in the stands of O’Shaughnessy Stadium cheering on Matt this fall.

“Every child is different, and every athlete has a different path to their success,” Guggemos said. “And I’m just glad that St. Thomas has prepared Nick and Matt for whatever route they go.”