Ernie Stautner, 80, Who Starred as Undersized N.F.L. Tackle, Is Dead
Ernie Stautner, an undersized defensive tackle who became the best player on the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ woeful teams in the 1950’s and was later enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died yesterday in a nursing home in Carbondale, Colo. He was 80 and lived in Vail, Colo.
The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, his wife, Jill, said.
For 14 National Football League seasons (1950-1963), Stautner, a native of Germany, played for Steelers teams that lost more often than they won. Their offenses were so unproductive that in two of those seasons their leading rusher failed to score a touchdown. But their defenses, led by Stautner, were always strong.
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. He was elected to the Hall of Fame, in Canton, Ohio, in 1969, the first year he was eligible. His Hall of Fame biography reads, in part, “He went on to excel in the game of giants.”
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