Early Life and Playing Career
Stoops is one of six children born to Ron, Sr. and Evelyn "Dee Dee" Stoops in Youngstown, Ohio. He attended Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio, where his father was an assistant football coach and defensive coordinator.
After high school Stoops played for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes (1982–1984) as a strong safety. He played on the same team with quarterback Chuck Long and was a two-time all-Big Ten Conference selection.
Stoops was signed as a free agent in May 1985 by the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), but was cut on August 27. In February 1986 he signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Falcons, but he missed the Falcons May 9–15 minicamp with a ruptured gall bladder from an auto accident and was later cut by Atlanta.
In the summer of 1987, Stoops became one of the original 80 Arena Football League (AFL) players when he suited up for the Pittsburgh Gladiators. Stoops was a key member of the Gladiators that season who went onto play in the inaugural ArenaBowl, losing to Denver, 45–16.
Stoops took time off from his job as a graduate assistant at Iowa to play as a replacement player for a limited time in 1987 with the Chicago Bears during the NFL strike. Wearing #44, he played safety in three games with the Bears that year, suffering a concussion in the an October 4 victory (35–3) against the Philadelphia Eagles. Other former Iowa players who were members of the National Football League Players Association had harsh words for Stoops. He responded, "I don't give a damn what they think. I wasn't trying to hurt anybody, and deep down, I think they know that. But if they feel that way, fine, don't ever talk to me again".
Returning to the Arena League, in the six-game AFL regular season, Stoops caught 22 passes, scored three touchdowns, made 15 tackles and recorded an interception, playing both wide receiver and defensive back positions.
Read more about this topic: Mike Stoops
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, playing and/or career:
“Although good early childhood programs can benefit all children, they are not a quick fix for all of society’s ills—from crime in the streets to adolescent pregnancy, from school failure to unemployment. We must emphasize that good quality early childhood programs can help change the social and educational outcomes for many children, but they are not a panacea; they cannot ameliorate the effects of all harmful social and psychological environments.”
—Barbara Bowman (20th century)
“They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share
They charmed it with smiles and soap.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.”
—Langston Hughes (1902–1967)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)