Obituary: Ernie Stautner

Hall of Fame tackle, his No. 70 the only one Steelers officially retired

April 20, 1925 - Feb. 16, 2006

Friday, February 17, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ernie Stautner spent Super Bowl Sunday in front of a television in his hospital room in Colorado, surrounded by four of his daughters, watching his beloved Steelers win another NFL championship.

Ailing with Alzheimer's disease the past eight years, he nevertheless knew he was watching them in the Super Bowl Feb. 5.

"Everyone went up there to make sure he had the Steelers on," his wife, Jill, said yesterday. "He was really proud. He might forget it in a few seconds, but he knew what was going on."

Mr. Stautner, a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle who played all 14 of his NFL seasons with the Steelers, died early yesterday morning in a Carbondale, Colo., nursing home. He was 80.

His No. 70 is the only jersey number officially retired by the team.

"He loved the Steelers," Jill Stautner said. "He hated that he never got to win there."

The Steelers did not have a championship season during Mr. Stautner's playing days from 1950 through 1963, but they received memorable play from their nine-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle. Undersized even for those days at 6-1, 230 pounds, Mr. Stautner used his incredible strength to dominate offensive linemen.

"What made him was his strength," Dan Rooney said yesterday. "This was a time players didn't have strength. I remember we were playing the Giants at Forbes Field one time and it was a very close game, and they were moving the ball. He sacked the quarterback three times in a row."

"He was one of those Germans, know what I mean, a tough dude," said former teammate Jack Butler. "Quick off the ball, he'd explode off the ball, make great contact and pound the hell out of offensive tackles. And he could chase. He was all football and a team player all the way, a good guy."

Mr. Stautner, born in Bavaria, moved with his family to Albany, N.Y., when he was 3. He served in the Marines and then played at Boston College.

The Steelers picked him in the third round of the 1950 draft. He made his first Pro Bowl in 1953 and his ninth in 1962. He missed only six games during his pro career, playing through injuries that included broken ribs, shoulders, hands and, often, a broken nose.

He made the NFL's official all-1950s team at defensive tackle, although he at times played on offense as well, at guard.

"I always termed him a smaller Joe Greene," said former teammate Bill Priatko. "He had the same type of quickness and strength to dominate a football game like Joe Greene. He was just a durable, tough, tough, football player."

The official Ernie Stautner Web site quotes Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jim Parker, who dueled with Mr. Stautner in the 1950s, saying, "That man ain't human. He's too strong to be human ... He's the toughest guy in the league to play against because he keeps coming head first. Swinging those forearms wears you down. That animal used to stick his head in my belly and drive me into the backfield so hard that, when I picked myself up and looked around, there was a path chopped through the field like a farmer had run a plow over it."

Mr. Priatko remembers a game in 1957 at Baltimore, a year before the Colts, with Johnny Unitas at quarterback, would win the NFL championship.

"He was just awesome," Mr. Priatko recalled. "We beat Baltimore, 19-13. They could not keep him out. He gave Unitas and that whole offense a rough time. He was consistently in their backfield and causing havoc."

He helped prevent it off the field for quarterback Bobby Layne. The two became fast friends and Mr. Stautner served as Mr. Layne's "bodyguard" during the quarterback's steady tour of Pittsburgh nightspots.

He later became friends with another famous Steelers quarterback who would join him in the Hall of Fame, Terry Bradshaw.

"Terry liked him a lot," Jill Stautner said. "I don't know how they connected. He lived close to where we were in the Dallas area."

Mr. Stautner was an assistant coach under Tom Landry with the Dallas Cowboys from 1966 through 1988, the final 16 years as their defensive coordinator. He was on the sideline for the Cowboys' two Super Bowl losses to the Steelers, but he also had two Super Bowl victories in Dallas.

"He was proud of his Cowboys Super Bowl rings," his wife said, "and the proudest thing he had in the world was his Hall of Fame ring."

Mr. Stautner was inducted in 1969, his first year of eligibility.

Out of a job when Landry retired after the 1988 season, Mr. Stautner made his home in Dallas and came out of retirement to coach Frankfurt of the World League in his native Germany. He coached the Galaxy from 1995 through 1997, winning the first World Bowl in his first year as coach.

Survivors include his wife, five daughters and six grandchildren.

Services will be in Lewisville, Texas, where he will be buried Monday.

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)