Rocky Blier voted one of top-10 WI athletes of all-time.
by G.K.Chesterton (2019-06-09 21:45:49)
Edited on 2019-06-09 21:46:21

If this is a repeat post, I apologize but I couldn't find a repeat if there was one. This article was posted back in March but I only recall seeing it now.

This is a pay-walled story so I will just include some excerpts. This is from the largest paper in Wisconsin:

Rocky Bleier may not have been the most physically imposing running back, but it didn’t prevent him from becoming the best – in high school and beyond.

Bleier, listed at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds when selected to his first all-state football team, was a three-sport standout at Appleton Xavier, leading the Hawks to a 27-0 record in his three years as a football starter from 1961-63 under legendary coach Gene “Torchy” Clark.

“He wasn’t the biggest running back, and he wasn’t the fastest running back, but nobody worked harder than him and nobody was more focused than him,” said Kelly Kornely, a lineman at Xavier who was a year ahead of Bleier.

Bleier, whose given name Robert gave way early to the nickname by which he is known, landed a football scholarship to Notre Dame. He played on the 1966 national championship team and was team captain as a senior the following year.


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In 1962, Bleier was the only junior on The Associated Press all-state football team, on which he repeated in 1963. He rushed for 2,985 yards in high school, averaging 9.4 yards per carry, with 55 touchdowns.

He was a two-time all-conference selection in basketball and top point scorer in track as a senior.

Although Xavier did not have a baseball team at the time, Bleier was selected as the “outstanding American Legion baseball player of 1963” in Wisconsin.

Bleier credits his high school success to being surrounded by talented teammates and a Hall of Fame coach, but also to being at the right spot in Xavier’s history.

“You have to take a look at the baby boomers of that era,” Bleier said. “A brand new Catholic high school, expansion which was taking place. It was built in ’58, and I got there in ’60.”

Bleier said the new school and a conference affiliation allowed Xavier to attract students from the Fox Valley who previously had gone to other Catholic or public schools.

“All of a sudden, rather than spreading that talent out, it coalesced in one place, a new Catholic high school,” said Bleier, who also played first trumpet in the school band. “So, you just had a lot of good athletes, which would support good teams.

"Who knows what would have happened if that hadn’t taken place? I think about that. One person can’t do it, it takes a team, as we well know. Offensive line, and defense playing well and so on. And, then you get to play on a team that from the beginning of the conference and you never lose a football game.”

“And then all of a sudden, the basketball team evolves and we’re the No. 1-ranked Catholic school in the state. We go undefeated my junior year and we lose one game my senior year, which was the championship game. Not me, but because of the environment and those athletes that allowed you to escalate, possibly in the minds of people, your talent. So, I look back and think, right place at right time. Right coach with Torchy Clark to get the most out of his players.”

On the football field, Kornely said Xavier’s success actually worked against Bleier’s statistics.

"I can only reference my senior year, his junior year, but we never got an opportunity to play the fourth quarter because we'd be ahead, 35-0,” said Kornely, who has remained friends with Bleier and other Xavier teammates. “He could have racked up more yardage. In that era, in the early '60s, it wasn't the passing era like it is today. I kid people that we had three plays 90 percent of the time, Bleier to the right, Bleier to the left and Bleier up the middle."





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