By KARL E. PEARSON - kpearson@starbeacon.com
Staff Writer
—
Mark Debevc and Jack Tatum were linked together by their connection as defensive teammates on the Ohio State University football team from 1968-70. The connections don’t end there, because in certain ways, their lives have followed similar paths since then.
It all hit home Tuesday for Debevc, the standout athlete in football, track and basketball at Geneva High School, with the word of Tatum’s death from a heart attack in a hospital in Oakland, Calif. at age 61. It was one more sign to Debevc, who has endured his share of heart problems in recent years, of the mortality of even those society might consider virtually indestructible.
“I’ve been thinking about Jack a lot today,” Debevc said Wednesday from his home where his family is still vitally involved in the grape-growing industry in Harpersfield Township. “It just shows you the past is only one step behind. It brought back a lot of memories for me.
“It makes you pause and think. It makes you want to make the most of your time. Every day is precious. That was something I thought about a lot when I was having my heart problems.”
It also brought back memories of the days when Tatum was arrived from the ghettos of Oakland and Debevc came from the home his immigrant parents had set up in Geneva to become part of Woody Hayes’ celebrated “Super Sophomores” that claimed the 1968 national championship. They helped lead Hayes’ Buckeyes to two Big Ten championships as well as the national title and a 27-2 record over their three-year varsity careers.
Debevc said there was little doubt Tatum was the leader of the Ohio State defense of that era, but he was more than that to the Ashtabula County Football Hall of Famer.
“He was the best player I ever saw,” Debevc said. “He was like radar.
“I remember when we were playing SMU (in the 1968 opener). They had Jerry LeVias (a world-class sprinter who later, like Tatum, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame) returning kickoffs. Jack was on kickoff coverage. LeVias tried to make a couple moves, but Jack was like a heat-seeking missile and got him (to start OSU to a 35-14 win and the undefeated season).”
To Debevc, Tatum was rivaled by only one player he has seen in the years since.
“The only guy I’ve seen like Jack is (Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Troy) Polamula,” he said.
Actually, during their sophomore and junior years, Tatum’s presence on the strong side of the Buckeye defense made sure Debevc saw plenty of activity.
“Jack played on the opposite end from me. He always went to the wide side of the field,” he said. “I was on the closed side, or weak side, of the field and everybody ran toward me so they could avoid Jack. That kind of put me in the spotlight.”
That strategy changed a bit in their senior year. Debevc feels it may have played a bit in Ohio State’s 27-17 loss in the 1971 Rose Bowl to the Stanford team led by Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett, a game the Buckeyes entered as the top-ranked team in the country.
“It was a big disappointment to me because they moved me over to the strong side with Jack and then we really never saw any action,” Debevc said. “I objected, but they did it anyway. They put a sophomore, Kenny Luttner, out there on the weak side and put him in the spotlight.
“My forte was dropping off in pass coverage. Stanford saw that and just used a lot of timing patterns and three-step drops by Plunkett to beat it, and back then we didn’t have a Plan B. They passed more, and that’s why we got beat.”
Tatum proved to be a hard person for Debevc to get to know.
“We got a little closer our senior year, but Jack was very quiet and we weren’t around each other much,” he said. “He was a very intelligent guy. He was brilliant in the classroom.
“A lot of people probably would think we were two guys from different backgrounds, but we probably really weren’t that different. He was from the ghetto and my parents were really poor immigrants. There was no animosity. He was just very reserved.”
Obviously, Tatum went on to great things in the NFL, going on to become the Oakland Raiders’ first-round draft pick in 1971, and helping them win the Super Bowl in 1976 before finishing his career with the Houston Oilers in 1980.
He was renowned for his hard-hitting style in the NFL, too. That aggressive style was criticized when Tatum’s hit on Darryl Stingley of the New England Patriots in a 1978 preseason game led to the latter’s paralysis. Tatum, who was nicknamed, “The Assassin,” for his style, also wrote two controversial books after his career, “They Still Call Me Assassin: Here We Go Again,” and, “Confessions of an NFL Assassin,” which some felt showed an unrepentant side to Tatum that cost him further immortality. Debevc feels that is an unfair assessment.
“There’s no question I believe he should in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player,” Debevc said.
Over the years, Debevc and Tatum had a couple of brief encounters, the last coming in 2008 when Ohio State recognized the 1968 team on the 40th anniversary of the national championship.
“We had a couple real short, cordial conversations, but nothing really that long,” Debevc said.
Diabetes decimated the once-robust Tatum. Eventually, it led to the amputation of his left leg before his fatal heart attack. Debevc called it just another illustration that no human is invincible.
“That’s one of the failings of hero worship,” he said. “Nobody gets beyond mortality. It’s not part of the contract.
“I used to have a hard time with that, but it just shows that in the end, there is the great equalizer. I’ve found comfort in that.
“I’m looking forward to that glorious day and have the faith to accept it.”
