By Tom Gilbert

Kansas State Sports Information Office

Kenny “The Glove” McEntyre isn’t just your average defensive specialist. It could easily be argued that he is the best defensive back the Arena Football League has ever seen.

McEntyre played football at Plano East Senior High in Plano, Texas, where he earned all-district and all-metro honors as a senior. His amazing athletic abilities were the talk of the town all throughout his high school career. Although he was academically ineligible to play at any Division I schools right out of high school, Kenny wasn’t about to let that get in his way. He wanted to play sports, whether it was football or not.

McEntyre soon enrolled at Cloud County Junior College, a school without a football team, and decided that he’d play basketball there to field some attention in another sport.

After two years at Cloud County and still no scholarship offers for basketball, Kenny’s mind turned back to football. After a visit with Bob Stoops, a former K-State defensive backs coach, Kenny was convinced he was ready to play football again.

McEntyre played one season of basketball and two seasons of football at Kansas State from 1991-1993 where he recorded 118 career tackles with four interceptions, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and six pass deflections.

Upon ending his college career, Kenny tried out with multiple NFL teams, but to no avail. At the conclusion of a four-year stretch with NFL Europe, he finally found something he liked. The Orlando Predators signed McEntyre in 1998 and he began his amazing AFL career as Kenny “The Glove” McEntyre.

The nickname came from the Predators’ public relations representative in one of Kenny’s first outings with the team.

“Coming into the AFL was a little different for me; I was used to playing outside,” Kenny said. “I was used to playing bump and run, like we did at K-State.”

The PR rep said that Kenny seemed to fit to his opponents like a glove. In his debut with the Predators, McEntyre held a usually dominant wide receiver to just two catches for 11 yards, and the nickname has stuck ever since.

Statistically, McEntyre is among the elite in the 19 year history of the AFL. He is currently the franchise and AFL’s record holder for most interceptions in a career (54), most interceptions returned for touchdowns (9), and most passes defended in a career (104).

Since the award was first given in 1996, Kenny is the only player to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award more than two times, including back-to-back awards in 2000 and 2001. But that’s not all. McEntyre has been named to the AFL’s First Team All-Arena squad six consecutive seasons (2000-2005) and is a member of the AFL’s All First 15-Year Team.

Kenny still follows the Wildcats who come into this season looking to improve on a 4-7 campaign from a year ago.

“I was a little disappointed about last year,” he said. “I got heckled a lot in the locker room, but I know we’re going to have a better year this year.”

Although the staff may have changed since his days in the purple and silver, McEntyre has the utmost confidence in Bill Snyder and the rest of his coaching staff.

“Being around Coach Snyder and the other coaches, like Stoops, they help you become a man and be strong; they just instill that in you every day.”

That mentality has helped Kenny get where he is today. He is going into his eighth season in the AFL, all with the Predators. In his seven years of playing in the league, Kenny has missed just two games, both during the 2005 season, and holds franchise records for games played and consecutive games played.

Kenny has a wife and two kids and resides in Orlando, Florida. McEntyre is an avid golfer and buys and sells real estate in the southern Florida area. He still keeps in touch with some of his former coaches and is looking forward to another great year of K-State football.