This is the final installment in The Gazette’s summer “Where Are They Now?” series, in which The Gazette has caught up with a prominent former Emporia-area athlete each week.
Rarely in his football career at Emporia High did Greg Stiner play the role of hero. But 33 years ago, he did when it mattered the most.
Stiner, mainly a blocking fullback, became a running one on a cold day in Junction City in late November 1976, helping to bring EHS its last State championship. The junior ran for 118 yards on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns in the Spartans’ 32-16 Class 4A State title game victory over Junction, thrusting him — for that brief moment — into the spotlight.
“This is the second or third interview I’ve ever had with a reporter,” Stiner said earlier this week. “And two of them happened that day, that game.”
But as long as historical archives stand, and as long as Spartan fans of the era are alive and have their memories of the period intact, Stiner will have a piece of EHS athletic immortality.
A longtime devotee of his faith, Stiner is now an assistant Presbyterian pastor who just moved northeast to complete his studies and become a full-time pastor. He and his wife, Janis, are now in Pittsburgh, Pa., where Stiner is studying at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Stiner was ordained in 1985 and served in California and Topeka before moving to the Kansas City area. Before their most recent move, the Stiners lived in Gladstone, Mo.
“We obviously can’t get back quite as frequently right now, but I have very fond recollections of Emporia,” Stiner said. “And whenever I gauge a city, I kind of hold Emporia up as (the standard) — the size town. There’s industry, there’s closeness that can be had if you want. It just seemed like a good community to raise a family in, and I was always glad to be part of that.”
As Stiner noted, as a football player, he was no headline-hogger; he was a blocker who played his role in the Spartans’ option attack. Emporia had bigger stars on its roster, with football futures after high school; senior quarterback Steve Smith and junior receiver Russ Bastin, for example, went on to play at Kansas.
But Stiner picked a great time to put together the best game of his career, pushing his way through the middle of Junction’s defense for most of his yards. He scored on a 5-yard run early in the second quarter and added a 2-yard score in the third.
“So it was an unusual thing,” Stiner said. “But we had some people that had been injured. ... It just worked out well. I think we took the other folks by surprise that we decided to go to the fullback. And we hit the holes, and the blockers were there, I guess. The rest is history.”
Smith added 97 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns of his own. The Spartan defense allowed Junction only 162 total yards and two touchdowns, including a meaningless one with 1:40 to go that made the final score more respectable.
The ’76 Spartans finished 12-0, the school’s first undefeated, untied season since 1915. The State title was the crowning achievement in the fast turnaround of the Spartan program led by coach David Hugg, who had taken over in 1973, a year after the Spartans went 1-8.
“As far as coaches go, my recollection of them, they were just top-notch coaches,” Stiner said. “They enjoyed what they were doing, and yet they disciplined the team as far as getting them in shape.
After his senior year in 1977-78, Stiner attended Clarksville Baptist College in Tennessee and studied pastoral theology.
“I grew up in a Christian home, and I didn’t really make the faith my own until... my early 20s then, 21, 22,” he said. “I was very familiar with it, but I kind of lived on the other side of the street, so to speak. Just didn’t make that my priority.
“When you get just a little bit of age on you, you start getting a little wiser about life, seeing the gravity of it, the important things in life and beyond.”
The Stiners have been married for 27 years and have one son in Oklahoma City and another son and a daughter in Kansas City. The program Stiner is in at Reformed Presbyterian is for three years. After he receives his master of divinity degree, he said he and Janis would like to return to the Midwest.
“I jokingly tell folks I know the language,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve invested a lot of time there in the Midwest. If that’s where God wants us, he will open that door for us to come back. That’s the plan right now.”
shaney02 (anonymous) says...
The problem with your caption under the picture of Stiner running the ball in 1976 against Topeka High is that Emporia did not play Topeka High in 1976.
August 17, 2009 at 1:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )