LB Mark Stier (offical thread)

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Hall inductee: Louisville star Mark Stier proved he was good enough.
By Josh Weir
CantonRep.com staff report
Posted Jul 10, 2009

Mark Stier

Woody Hayes showed up at Mark Stier?s high school football banquet in 1964 and unexpectedly offered him a scholarship.

?I think my words back to him were, ?I?m not sure I?m good enough,? ? Stier recalls.

Sure, Stier knocked ball carriers senseless as a Louisville linebacker. He also played offensive line and helped keep tacklers off Notre Dame-bound Bob Gladieux.

But Ohio State? The Big Ten? Saturdays in The Horseshoe?

?It?s a little different than playing Leetonia on a Friday night with 1,500 people there,? Stier observed.

Legendary Leopards coach Paul Starkey had doubts about a 6-foot, 200-pound kid from Louisville playing linebacker for the Buckeyes.

?But nobody was going to outhit him. And nobody was going to outwork him,? said Starkey, who was an assistant during Stier?s high school career. ?That was his strong point, and that?s why he did what he did.?

What the unassuming Stier did was win, from teaming with Gladieux to go 28-1-1 in three years as a starter at Louisville, to his three years as a starter at Ohio State that culminated in the fabled 1968 national championship. It turns out Stier was good enough. He?ll be inducted into the Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame on July 17 at Skyland Pines.

FOND MEMORIES

Beating the O.J. Simpson-led Southern Cal Trojans in the 1969 Rose Bowl might be the bullet point in his career that garners the most attention. But Stier looks at his high school days with equal fondness.

?Those were some great years for me personally,? a now 62-year-old Stier said. ?I?m just thrilled to have that and be included (in the Hall of Fame). Goodness sakes, Stark County football is legendary.

It?s some of the best of the best, so it?s a great honor.?

These days, Stier delivers the Word. He?s executive minister at Westerville Christian Church.

During his playing days, Stier delivered punishment.

?Just a vicious tackler,? described Starkey, a member of the 2004 Hall of Fame class. ?He would get to the ball, and he?d stop them.?

Stier?s rough-and-tumble style was at the center of a Louisville defense that allowed double-figure points just twice in three years and pitched 16 shutouts.

?I truly enjoyed defense,? he said. ?It probably fit my personality. I?m kind of (a Type) A personality, an intense kind of guy. Defense was always one of those things that if you tried harder you did better. Offense, that wasn?t always the case because you needed to be kind of calm, cool and collected. But on defense, you could kind of let your hair down and fly around and hit people.?

Mark Stier
Louisville
Linebacker,
offensive line
1962-64

Leopards went 28-1-1 in Stier?s three years as a starter and won three Tri-County League titles.
Stier?s defenses allowed county lows of 36 points in 1962 and 24 points in 1964.
Leopards posted 16 shutouts in Stier?s three years; Allowed double-figure points just twice in 30 games.
1962 team was Louisville?s first undefeated squad and Tri-County champion since 1949.
The 10-0 1964 team led county in offense (420) and defense (24), while not allowing a point in Tri-County play.
First-team All-Stark County Repository and WHBC and Tri-County League All-Star in 1964.
Earned scholarship to Ohio State and played under Woody Hayes, starting three years at linebacker for Buckeyes.
MVP and captain of 1968 national championship team.
Academic All-American in 1968 and Academic All-Big Ten 1966 and ?68.
Worked for Worthington Industries for 27 years, retiring in 2001 as vice president of corporate human resources.
Spent the last eight years at Westerville Christian Church, where he is Executive Minister.
Helping coach his son Brian?s club football team, the Columbus Crusaders.
Born Jan. 22, 1947, to Howard and Grace Stier.
Resides in Westerville. Wife is Pat, children are Matt, Brian and Mikki.
Uncle of Derek and Dustin Fox.

Hall inductee: Louisville star Mark Stier proved he was good enough - Canton, OH - CantonRep.com

The memories: From Mark Stier, a starting linebacker and one of three senior co-captains for the 1968 team:"What people don't realize is in 1966, we'd had a losing season, and '67 was a little better, at least we had a winning record. But to get to any bowl, let alone the Rose Bowl, let alone for the national championship, it was almost something that was beyond our ability to think about. You didn't want to talk about it until you got to the end. We knew the potential was there with this fantastic sophomore class, but in the back of our minds as seniors, we were always one game away from losing this thing. So it was truly rags to riches.

"We'd never been there and never seen anything like that, so the job of the seniors, from my perspective, was trying to keep focus and keep this talented sophomore group on the straight and narrow the best we could. We worked our buns off in preparation for that game.

"Woody gave us some free time, but, for instance, we got taped on the airplane on the way out to the Rose Bowl, because Woody didn't want to waste any time. When we got off the plane, there was a Rose Bowl court and some kind of band and we stopped for a minute, said, "Hey, how you doing? We're glad to be here," and they put us on a bus and away we went to practice.

"We were down, 10-0, at one point, and I can remember being on the sidelines, and to a man, there was not one guy who had doubts. We really felt like we were better prepared and better conditioned and more deserving. We'd never been there, and [USC] had success in the past, and we were Midwest kids, so we had a lot of psychological kinds of things that I think helped us."

Ohio State becomes national champions with a 27-16 win over USC: Buckeyes Rose Bowl Rewind | Ohio State Buckeyes - cleveland.com - - cleveland.com