@the-gipper said:

Didn't know that about Terry. My sister and cousin were friends with him and I know he grew up in Steubenville.

Harry Wilson - not a great career. I just knew what my father told me.

Ara Parseghian. Yes, the former coach of Notre Dame. Played for the Browns in '48 and 49. Part of the undefeated team. Went to Akron South High.

Harry Stuhldreher. More Notre Dame Glory. Was one of the famed Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Played in the 20s for the Brooklyn Lions NFL team. Attended Massillon H.S.

Tim Spencer. From Martin's Ferry, just north of Steubenville. Played 6 years with the Chargers. Gained 1792 yards. I believe he is currently the running backs coach for The Ohio State University. Of course was an outstanding ball carrier for OSU.

Dean Sensenbaugher. From Midvale, which is next to Dover/New Philadelphia. Played for the Browns and NY Yanks of the AAFC in '48 and '49. Played for OSU.

Curiosity: there is currently a receiver with OSU named Dean Sanzenbacher who is from Toledo. Is that not odd? Do you think they could be related despite the variance on the spelling of the last name?

Eric Wilkerson. Cleveland Central Catholic. Kent State. Played 1 game with the Steelers in 1989.

@calfoxwc said:

I can only think of Charlie Frye.

Well, he HAD to RUN all the damn time...

There is another thread on area QBs where Charlie is listed. (sometimes though I am not sure Charlie HAD to run, but chose to because of skittishness.)

@kosar_for_president said:

I remember seeing Robert Smith in high school. It was almost comical how good he was. I saw him run for like 150 yards against St Ed's. They were not a slouch team at the time, I think they were top 25 in the state. My friend was linebacker for St. Ed's and I he got beat more then a red headed step child. I still make fun of him for it.

LMAO. I played against him my senior year, and I went to make a tackle and whiffed. He had those long strides that would fool you. I was in great position as a safety and he just stopped, and then went right on by me. I had a couple tackles on him and thought he went down failry easy. But man was he good. Tony Fisher followed behind him, and let me tell you he was no slouch either.

@playgroundlegend said:

I remember him. He was there just before I moved to Vegas. Shame, shame, shame. That kid was shockingly good. And returned kicks and punts.

@the-gipper said:

Good list.

I remember seeing Robert Smith in high school. It was almost comical how good he was. I saw him run for like 150 yards against St Ed's. They were not a slouch team at the time, I think they were top 25 in the state. My friend was linebacker for St. Ed's and I he got beat more then a red headed step child. I still make fun of him for it.

@jc said:

Without question. Both PA and OH can safely argue they have the best wrestlers in the country. Out here in Vegas we see some of this influence the last 15-20 years as members of these two states moved here and have shared the wisdom, so to speak. While nowhere near a CA, OH or PA, Las Vegas does have some good wrestlers because of the OH/PA coaching influence.

I can only think of Charlie Frye.

Well, he HAD to RUN all the damn time...

@jc said:

Ryan Terry is listed as being born in Ft. Bragg N.C. We take your word he went to Steubenville. He is not really listed as a runner. He played 2 years with the Cards. He gained -0- yards rushing, had 1 career catch for 1 yard, but was a Kickoff returner. He had 41 kickoff returns in his career for 892 yards. He also recovered 1 fumble so he was apparently specifically a special teams player.

@skinny said:

I guess that would be fine, but I chose NE Ohio as that is the Browns primary market area. There were certainly a lot of RBs and QBs from other parts of the state. Feel free to list any from your home area.

@jc said:

OK, it shows that Harry Wilson of Steubenville played in 6 games in 3 years in his career with Philly (it was in '67, '69, and 70). He gained all of 7 career rushing yards, plus another 150 in kick return yardage. Talk about a cup of coffee.

@skinny said:

As good as football is here in Ohio, we definitely have some of the best wrestlers around. I think in 2007, five of the National Champions in wrestling came from north east Ohio.

####Hall of Famer Clark Hinkle was from Toronto, Ohio. This is down on the River, north of Steubenville. He played his HOF career with the Packers.

Mike Adamle. From Kent Roosevelt. (His dad was long time official Browns team physician). Went to Northwestern, played 6 years with 3 NFL teams. You may all remember him better for his announcing. He was a regular college football announcer, but perhaps even more well known as the announcer for the original American Gladiators.

Eric Ball. From Cleveland, don't know which High School. Went to UCLA played 6 years mostly with the Bengals.

Greg Boykin. From Ravenna. Also went to Northwestern. Played 2 years with the Saints and 49ers.

Tony Fisher. From Euclid and Notre Dame. Played 5 years with Packers and Rams.

There may be more.

@brownshirt said:

Pro-football-reference.com shows no entry of Zelina ever playing in the NFL, and they literally have everyone going back to the 1920s. They had Gladman's and Rick's big 29 yard careers each. Apparently Zelina didn't make it.

@beefjerky said:

so I imagine a lot of great athletes are just never discovered by the world because of this reason.

I primarily wanted to deal with RBs who made the pros, but your point is well made. Look at a guy like Maurice Clarett from Warren. Obviously All American caliber RB in college, outside influences got to him. Billy Taylor was similar. His mother died right after he led Michigan in the Rose Bowl I believe, then he had a murder/suicide happen in his family and it screwed him up and he turned to drugs. (He played in the late 60s). He later rehabbed and became a minister, but a budding potential NFL career went up in smoke.

so I imagine a lot of great athletes are just never discovered by the world because of this reason.