It’s fun, even fashionable to select a Mount Rushmore of virtually any topic.
Obviously narrowing down four greats is based on the famed South Dakota carving of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.
Among Ohio’s high school quarterbacks, we’re looking for a fourth to complete our own Mount Rushmore of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
It started with Alliance’s Len Dawson, who piloted the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV; followed by Cincinnati’s Roger Staubach, who was at the helm for the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowls VI and XII; and most recently stopped at Findlay’s Ben Roethlisberger, who guided the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL and XLIII.
But a fourth? It just so happens we have one warming up in the bullpen in the form of Athens product Joe Burrow. He’s at the helm of the Cincinnati Bengals, who will tangle with the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI.
Any interested party is well-acquainted with Burrow’s story. The son of a college football assistant coach, Burrow led undefeated Athens High School to the 2014 Division III state championship game, where the Bulldogs lost an incredible 56-52 shootout in the final 15 seconds to Toledo Central Catholic.
Burrow’s performance in that game was, and is, legendary. Ohio’s Mr. Football completed 26-of-45 passes for a championship-game record 446 yards with six touchdowns (also a record) and one interception — only his second of an unbelievable year.
He went on to Ohio State, but sat behind Big Ten MVP J.T. Barrett, and then future first-round NFL Draft pick Dwayne Haskins.
So, Burrow graduated after just three years as a Buckeye and transferred to LSU. In his second year as a Bayou Bengal, Burrow threw a whopping 60 touchdown passes, won the Heisman Trophy and led his team to the 2019 national championship.
He was again magnificent in the title game, carving up defending national champion Clemson and ending its 29-game winning streak in the process. Burrow hit 31-of-49 passes for 463 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran for another score in a 42-25 beating to complete a 15-0 season.
Virtually the only thing left for Burrow to do as a football player is win a Super Bowl — and finish our monument.
The first Ohio quarterback to turn the trick was Dawson. The Purdue gunslinger led Kansas City to the first Super Bowl in 1967, where the Chiefs were ambushed 35-10 by the Green Bay Packers.
But Dawson and Kansas City regrouped under coach Hank Stram, and won the fourth Super Bowl by upsetting the two-touchdown favorite Minnesota Vikings 23-7 on Jan. 11, 1970. Better still, Dawson was MVP of the game after hitting 12-of-17 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown. He was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
To date, Staubach is easily the greatest quarterback Ohio has ever produced. The Cincinnati Player of the Year at Purcell (now Purcell-Marian) High School, he also won the Heisman Trophy at Navy and led the Midshipmen to a No. 2 ranking in the polls his junior year. After a tour of duty in Vietnam, Staubach came home and became a Pro Bowler in six of his 11 seasons, leading the Cowboys to four Super Bowls, and winning two of them.
Staubach was voted Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl VI, leading Dallas past Miami 24-3. He was the first of four players to win both the Heisman Trophy and Super Bowl MVP, along with Jim Plunkett, Marcus Allen, and Desmond Howard (another Ohio high school phenom from Cleveland St. Joseph).
Burrow could join this club too — if he can lead the Bengals past the Rams and pocket the MVP trophy.
A Findlay High School graduate who was a breakout star at Miami University, Roethlisberger led the Pittsburgh Steelers to three Super Bowls, and won two of them. Although he was not the MVP of either Super Bowl victory, he threw the game-winning TD pass in the latter contest on Feb. 1, 2009.
In one of the most thrilling of all Super Bowls, Pittsburgh trailed 23-20 and had the ball on their own 22-yard line with 2:37 remaining. The march went backwards on the first play when a holding penalty pushed the Steelers to their own 12.
From there, Roethlisberger engineered a drive that travelled the length of the field and culminated with a 6-yard TD pass to Santonio Holmes. The former Buckeye caught the aerial just inbounds at the corner of the end zone with 35 seconds remaining for a 27-23 victory.
Can Burrow add his name to that proud Ohio legacy? A victory over the Rams will do exactly that.
Richland Source managing editor Larry Phillips has been an Ohio high school sportswriter since 1989. He’s written two books on the subject, Ohio’s Autumn Legends, Volume I & Volume II, available at Amazon.com.
