Remembering Korey Stringer
Stringer leaves legacy of awareness
July 31, 2011
By VIRGINIA SHANK - reporter (
[email protected]) , Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com
WARREN - Family, friends, fans and acquaintances of Korey Stringer typically agree that the famed football player loved Warren and the people who live here.
Born in Warren on May 8, 1974, Stringer was a hometown hero. He helped Warren G. Harding High School win the Division I state football title in 1990 before earning All-American honors at The Ohio State University and eventually sailing all the way to the Pro Bowl in the National Football League.
Although football took him from the area, family members insisted the beloved 6-foot-4, 355-pound offensive lineman, known as the "gentle giant," never fully left behind the small city he called home.
"He loved the people here," Kevin Stringer, Korey's older brother, said last week. "This is where he grew up, where he went to school and lived. This was home."
The Minnesota Vikings picked him in the first round of the 1995 NFL draft. He was a standout on the offensive line, earning Pro Bowl honors in what turned out to be his final season.
Ten years ago this week, Aug. 1, 2001, Stringer died from complications brought on by heat stroke during football practice at the Vikings training camp in Mankato, Minn. He was 27 and the first professional football player to die from the illness.
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