I remember him best as the defensive coach for Tom Landry, but I also know that he was a defensive tackle for the Steelers in the 1950s and a Hall of Famer. When I was younger, it was always my impression that he was HUGE.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Reading some of the obits, it seems that he was a precursor to one of my favorite playes, Tim Krumrie.
Here are some obits with some great quotes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/sports/football/17stautner.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
At 6-foot-1 and about 235 pounds, he was small for his position, even in that
era, but he was chosen to play in the Pro Bowl nine times and was voted to the
N.F.L.'s All-Star team four times.
Jim Parker, the Hall of Fame offensive guard who died last July, as once saying of Stautner: "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 headfirst. 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 the farmer had run a plow over it."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/nfl/stories/021706dnspostautner.323f3346.html
"He was from an era where football was built and was one of the toughest guys
I've ever known," former Cowboys safety Cliff Harris said. "In those early days
of football, there was no such thing as illegal roughness, and Ernie had broken
noses and broken knuckles, and everything was fair. I think that people have
forgotten about that era, but they laid the foundation of where football is
today, and he was one of those pillars."
Bob Lilly was in his
sixth season when Stautner joined Landry's staff as a defensive line coach in
1966. He knew Stautner as a tough-nosed player from his days with the Steelers
and saw it again as a coach.
"We're hitting the two-man sled, and we're supposed to hit it with our forearms, and Ernie says, 'You guys are hitting it like a bunch of girls. Let me show you how to hit it,' " Lilly recalled. "He comes up and almost knocked it over. By the third time, he hit this steel plate with his knuckle and broke his hand. He got our attention from
that point on."
http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/sports/steelerslive/s_424869.html
And, because he demonstrated a blue-collar work ethic (no doubt developed in his native Germany), he was a favorite of the long-suffering Steelers fans.
"Ernie's physical and relentless style of play helped the Steelers earn a reputation for being one of the NFL's toughest teams in the 1950s," Rooney said, mindful that the Steelers were 16-9-3 in Stautner's final two seasons, which included a playoff berth in 1962. "He was undersized for his position, but his strength and power were among his greatest assets."
"He was kind of the backbone of our Doomsday defenses," said Gil Brandt, the vice president of player personnel with the Cowboys from 1960-89. "He kind of coached like he played. He was a hard-working, hard-trying individual who had a lot of patience in developing young players. He was easy-going and well-liked. The thing with him was that he made everybody feel at home."
http://news.steelers.com/article/62905/
"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."
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news.cfm?id=7438BC7C-C1BA-E12C-07CE962FB46D1FDB
Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells remembered having to coach against those Stautner defenses when he was first making his way in the NFL.
"He was the first one to bring all eight," recalled Parcells, referring to the numbers of guys at the line of scrimmage and rushing the quarterback - a forerunner to what Buddy Ryan began doing with the Bears. "He was tough."
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=269853&Category=17
Lilly, a Hall of Fame defensive tackle, said that as soon as Stautner arrived, he demanded that his players pay attention to the little things in practice. “He said, ‘You guys hit that two-man sled like a bunch of girls.’ What he did was he put his right hand in a fist and came up and hit that sled as hard as he could, and he was stout,” Lilly said. “He hit it two or three times, and we were wide-eyed.
“There’s a half-inch metal plate behind that pad, and he hit that pad with his middle knuckle and broke a bone in his hand. He hit it again, and blood started squirting out,” Lilly said. “Boy, I can tell you he had our attention from then on.”
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