An Appreciation: Ernie Stautner

Ernest Alfred "Ernie" Stautner

Pittsburgh Steelers Defensive End/Tackle

(April 20, 1925 – February 16, 2006)

Ernie Stautner's Bio
Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney's Statement

By BOB LABRIOLA
http://www.Steelers.com

He was the franchise's first great home-grown player, and he is the only player in the 73-season history of the Pittsburgh Steelers to have his number retired officially.

Ernie Stautner contributed a lot of things to the Steelers during his 14-year career with them, and one of the most meaningful things he gave them was their reputation.

To this day, the Steelers are thought of throughout the sports world as a tough, physical football team that strives for excellence through the basic fundamentals of the sport. That reputation was forged during Stautner's 14-year career with the team, and that reputation started with him.

Stautner, a Hall of Fame defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, passed away this morning at the age of 80.

"Strength is what made Ernie Stautner special," said Steelers chairman Dan Rooney. "He would be a little bit like Casey Hampton in that he was so strong. They didn't have strong guys in that era, the 1950s, because they didn't lift weights. They did running, mainly. He was quick, but strength was his biggest forte. And tough. He was a tough guy."

A second-round draft choice in 1950, Stautner was considered undersized for a defensive tackle, but packed into that 6-foot-1, 230-pound body were other qualities that couldn't be measured. Today, NFL scouts refer to those as intangibles.

Stautner's Pro Football Hall of Fame biography reads, "Blessed with excellent mobility and burning desire, the Boston College star went on to excel in the game of giants. For the next 14 years, Stautner was a fixture at defensive tackle, a veritable folk hero with long-suffering Steelers fans and a major factor in the Pittsburgh defense, one of the most punishing in the NFL at the time."

Through the early years of the NFL, scouting was not as sophisticated as it is today, and teams often learned of good college players by word of mouth. Teams also were known to draft guys they never had seen play. But maybe this is where the Steelers had a possible advantage with Stautner, because Boston College is run by the Jesuit priests, and Art Rooney Sr. was a devout Catholic.

"How they got him, I don't know the facts," said Rooney. "My father had a lot of friends in Boston, and they might have told him about Ernie. It's also possible the priests told my father about him, too."

However it was that Stautner came to Pittsburgh, it didn't take him long to establish himself as a force in the NFL. It's important to understand that defense really wasn't noticed by NFL fans until the late 1950s, and then it was the New York Giants who made it popular. In fact, it would be another decade before a team's defensive play would be featured on its annual highlights film.

But Stautner was part of the generation of players who changed all that.

"He was a tremendous player," said Rooney. "He was the first one who really made an impact from a defensive standpoint, almost in the whole league. I remember a game against the New York Giants at Forbes Field, and it was one of those games where it was close and they were moving the ball, and he tackled the quarterback three straight times – first down, second down, third down – and then they had to punt. And we went on to win the game."

Stautner earned All-NFL honors in 1955, 1956, 1958, and 1959. He was named to nine Pro Bowls and is a member of the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1950s. His play earned him first- or second-team All-NFL honors nine times; his three career safeties tied him for a then all-time NFL record, and his 23 fumble recoveries placed him third on that list.

"Yet Ernie's true worth on a football field could never be measured in lines in a record manual, for statistics can't measure such assets as competitive nature, team spirit, grim determination, and the will to win," continues his Hall of Fame biography. "Extremely resilient, the native of Bavaria missed only six games during his entire NFL career. That's not to say he didn't suffer a number injuries. His maladies included broken ribs, shoulders, hands, and a nose broken too many times to count."

Born April 20, 1925 in Prinzing-by-Cham, Bavaria, Stautner is one of eight members of the Hall of Fame born in a foreign country; he was inducted on Sept. 13, 1969; and there is that photo of Rooney and Stautner on the sideline at Pitt Stadium on the day the Steelers retired his No. 70 jersey.

"It was a big deal, because everybody thought he was our best player before Bobby Layne and those guys came," said Rooney. "(Pittsburgh Press sports editor) Pat Livingston wrote a story in the newspaper saying the Steelers definitely should retire Stautner's jersey because it would be a sacrilege to let somebody else wear it. And it just caught on.

"He was a lineman, and he made an impact."

Stautner also was one of the first players in Steelers history to be granted some leeway because of his superstar status. The owner of a drive-in theater – and those were very popular at that time – Stautner always reported late to training camp, because drive-ins were busiest in the summer.

"The team in the 1950s was a lot better than anybody knew," said Rooney. "They played well. They didn't win championships, but some of that was because of injuries. Our reputation for being a tough team started a little bit before Ernie, but not to the extent that he would take it to.

"When people thought of the Steelers in the 1950s, they thought of Ernie Stautner."