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YSU’s Bear was a Penguin
By ryan buck
On their way back from trips to visit family in Pittsburgh, nostalgia usually diverts the Deligianis’ return trip; northbound up Interstate 680 and west across the Madison Avenue Expressway before making their way back to Geauga County.
Harry Deligianis just wants to drive past Stambaugh Stadium and show his two children the place that means so much to him.
After all, the former Ashtabula High School standout is a big reason why the scoreboard at the north end zone of the stadium includes 1997 along with 1991, 1993 and 1994.
“I really enjoyed the experience and the people,” said Deligianis, who starred on the defensive line for YSU from 1995-97. “There’s something special about that area.”
Deligianis’ path to stardom with the Penguins almost never happened. He was recruited by Division I schools across the country, but poor grades in high school sent him to Joliet (Ill.) Junior College before he could enroll at a major university.
It was his first time away from home, his close-knit family, and his high school sweetheart, Casey.
“I was so homesick, I couldn’t take it,” Deligianis said.
He returned to Ashtabula where his father hooked him up with a job at a friend’s construction company.
Nicknamed “The Bear,” by his father at a young age, the younger Deligianis was about to see work as a necessity and his father found the perfect motivational tool.
“He said, ‘Show him what life’s all about,’” Deligianis said. “I was down in these drainage systems. I would clean these out and the whole time, my boss, this little 70-year-old guy, just yelled at me the entire time. After a couple months, I knew I had to get back to school.”
Deligianis sat down at the dinner table with his uncle and wrote to the head coach of an area college coming off two Division I-AA national title game appearances.
“I went down there and walked-on,” Deligianis said. “They gave me a scholarship after about two weeks or so.”
His production on defense improved every year and, like a stock fresh off a kind word from Warren Buffett, it went through the roof in 1997. The Penguins’ success correllated with their star defensive lineman’s.
“His passion for the game, his unselfish willingness to do what the TEAM needed, and of course, his great pass rushing/run stopping ability were all huge reasons why we won it all,” former YSU coach Jim Tressel said via email. “He took over so many games (Villanova comes to mind....McNeese State....).....that championship was truly sparked by a great defense and extraordinary UNSELFISH leaders like The Bear.”
Deligianis ignited the Penguins’ comeback win at top-ranked Villanova when his beloved defensive line coach Bob Stoops ordered him to move outside to end. Three sacks later, the Penguins were moving on in the I-AA playoffs.
“It opened a lot of holes to get a good pass rush and pressure on the quarterback,” Deligianis said of the line’s versatility and Stoops’ coaching. “The guys around me on defense, some years you can key on one guy. They had to be careful who they tried to key on.”
In the national title win over McNeese State, Deligianis single-handedly blew up the Cowboys’ final drive with two quarterback sacks on the game’s final two plays. As Penguins fans, and his own horde of family and friends that followed him to every game, rushed the field in Chattanooga, Tenn., Deligianis could not find the strenth to celebrate.
“The one time I was totally exhausted was after that game,” he said.
On the strengths of his senior season, he was drafted in the fourth round by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He never caught on and tried to keep his career alive on NFL practice squads, in NFL Europe and the Arena Football League, but evemtually decided to retire after a back injury. Deligianis was reluctant to make a switch to the offensive line.
“Sometimes it’s hard not to think back and should I have made that switch or not? I like to win at anything I do and I like to be successful,” he said. “My mind and body weren’t ready to quit playing. I definitely have regrets. I planned to play and make it a career.”
Deligianis found a new teammate in wife Casey. They slowly and humbly started a business shipping high-end furniture to a growing list of clients across the midwest and east coast.
“In college, we’d go to auctions sometimes on weekends way back then,” he said. “It’s something we always did. It’s kept growing and it’s worked out for us.”
Deligianis had a work ethic instilled in him by his family, but another source reinforced the message.
“I remember asking Coach Tressel about a career and advice and some ideas when I was playing and he had me follow him into his office,” Deligianis said. “He handed me a piece of paper and all it said was, ‘Work, work, work,’ like 300 or 400 times. The harder you work, the luckier you get, it seems.”
Tressel still regards him as an all-time great at YSU.
“One thing about my life is that I fell into a lot of good situations,” Deligianis said. “Going to Youngstown was a blessing.”