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Perry Jeter was a lot of things to a lot of people in the Steubenville area. An athletic hero, role model, teacher and coach to name a few.
His impact on the area was felt by many. His passing on May 18 may have left a hole in the heart of the Steubenville community, but those that felt his impact will not soon forget.
"I thought that coach Jeter was a great man," said Big Red principal Ted Gorman, who graduated with Jeter's daughter Robin in 1986 and played football with his son, Perry Jr. "He raised a wonderful family. He was a person that always had a smile on his face and was always positive."
"Perry was an asset in the schools. He was a very positive influence in the community," Pete Barren, a former member of the Steubenville Board of Education said. "He was someone everyone knew and everyone respected. He was an outstanding man and quite a loss. He will certainly be missed."
Jeter's lasting impact on Steubenville began on Harding Stadium grass in the late 1940s and early 50s when he was a member of the Big Red football team. Regarded as one the best to ever wear the crimson and black, his most memorable moment came in a 1950 contest against Canton McKinley when he returned a kickoff 109 yards for a touchdown, which still stands as the longest touchdown in Harding Stadium history.
Anyone one asks about Jeter recalls that play. According to Barren, his impact as a role model began then.
"I was a young kid that idolized Mr. Jeter and the other Big Red football players," Barren, who was on the Board of Education from 1981 to 1997, said. "Growing up, Perry Jeter was one of our football heroes. I witnessed the 109-yard return for a touchdown in 1950 against Canton McKinley. He was great football player for Big Red and a great role model to us young kids. I was one of the kids that used to hang around the stadium and got to know the players."
The impact of the play and his legacy at Big Red carried over to future generations of players, which included Gorman.
"I remember, as a kid, playing for Big Red and seeing coach Jeter's football card and reading about him," Gorman said. "I remember seeing in the record book the 109-yard return against Canton McKinley. I think it's a record that still stands today."
After his success at Big Red, Jeter took his talents to Cal Poly to play college football. He was teammates with Bobby Beathard and set a school record for most touchdowns that stood for more than a decade after he left. In 1987, he was inducted in Cal Poly's Hall of Fame.
Following his successful college career, Jeter was selected by the Chicago Bears in the 1955 NFL Draft. He spent two season with the Bears, scoring two rushing touchdowns and a return touchdown in the 1956 season. An injury cut his NFL career short, but his return to the football field with the Wheeling Ironmen a few years later led him back to Steubenville.
"He was playing for the Wheeling Ironmen and met Dr. Dan Keenan," Gorman said. "He was working for the schools part time and Dr. Keenan convinced him to go back and get his degree, and that is when he became a teacher. Dr. Keenan believed in him enough and thought highly enough of him as a good person and thought he would be a good role model to kids to help him go back and finish his education to become a teacher."
Keenan, who was the principal at Grant Junior High School at the time and later became superintendent of Steubenville City Schools, remembers meeting Jeter.
"I came across Perry in 1968 when I was serving as Grant principal," Keenan said. "He had been playing for the Wheeling Ironmen and working part time at the stadium in the summer. I got to know him a little bit and I was familiar with him because of his playing for the Chicago Bears. I asked the superintendent about halfway through the semester to place him in a custodian position at Grant. From that time on, I had pretty good relationship with him."
That meeting led to Jeter finishing his degree at Kent State's East Liverpool campus and eventually a 25-year career serving Steubenville's kids.
"He returned to school to obtain his degree. He obtained his teaching certificate and became a teacher and coach in the Steubenville City School system," Keenan said. "He had a 25-year career. He was very successful working with students. He had a lot of drive and persistence to go back to college in his mid-40s and that says a lot about him. I think he was as proud of his degree as he was anything he did athletically."
Jeter was a phys-ed teacher and coached junior high football, track and girls basketball at Grant, as well as being a freshman coach, starting in the mid 1970's. His counterpart at Harding Junior High back then was Reno Saccoccia.
"Just his experience as a college player and a pro player really rubbed off on the players of those days," Saccoccia, the long-time Big Red football head coach, said. "They enjoyed playing for him. For anyone to be a junior high kid and play for someone who played for the Chicago Bears really went a long way. I was happy to live through that, both coaching against him as a junior high coach and working with him when I became the head coach."
He recalled what it was like to coach against Jeter at the height of the rivalry between the two Steubenville schools.
"It was pretty intense," Saccoccia said. "I was the coach at Harding Junior High and he was the coach at Grant. We played the last game of the year against each other three years in a row and drew a couple thousand people for those games. It was great to be a part of the Grant-Harding rivalry, but to coach against him made it double-great. We went against each other in all three sports."
More than just as a rival coach and colleague, Saccoccia remembers Jeter as someone who helped young people.
"Perry helped a lot of kids get to the next level, not just in sports, but as people," he said. "Perry helped a lot of people. He was a great role model to young kids and even people that graduated and came back.
"Perry was a special person. He was down to earth. His family and church came first above everything. I don't think you will find anyone that will have anything negative to say about Perry."
Years later, Saccoccia had an interaction that showed his impact went beyond Steubenville.
"Something I will remember is a trip we took to Washington Redskins spring training," Saccoccia said. "Bobby Beathard was the general manager and I had a Steubenville shirt on. He came up to me and asked if I knew of Perry Jeter. I said, 'Yes, Perry coached with me.' He told me Perry played with him at Cal Poly and he played with John Madden. Both of them are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Just talking to someone that played with Perry, being the Hall of Famer that he is, was a good experience."
To Gorman, it was how Jeter treated people that made him the role model he was.
"People always looked up to him," he said. "People always knew that he played in the NFL. More importantly, he was just a regular guy and people always felt comfortable around him. I think he was a role model. He was a popular figure. There are probably not too many people that would say anything negative about him.
"It's important for someone like that to have that belief in out town and belief in our schools to come back and live here and raise his family here."
Barren, who got to know him better while serving on the school board, remembers Jeter for his character.
"He was an exemplary individual," he said. "He was a man of high character. He was a great role model for kids and a very humble, gentle person. He was an all-around good citizen and good person. He was a very low-key, quiet man that always had a smile on his face and a kind word to say to everyone."
To Keenan, it is Jeter's smile and positive attitude that he thinks the community will remember most.
"When I think about Perry, he was just a jovial guy that wanted to give back to the community," he said. "He enjoyed working with kids and impacted a lot of lives. I think he related with people really well. Anyone that came into contact with him would know he always had a smile on his face, regardless of what was going on. I think people will remember him for that.
"He was always proud of Steubenville and spoke highly of it. We need more Perry Jeters to come back, and that is asking a lot because he was a high-caliber person."
(Grimm can be reached at agrimm@heraldstaronline.com)