Juice Scruggs, Brian Stablein among players to represent northwestern Pa. in NFL
Several high school football players from throughout northwestern Pennsylvania since the early 20th century have gone on to reach the professional level.
The Erie Times-News' series on Erie-area connections to the NFL concludes with this installment of former players, coaches and personnel with last names starting with letters S, T, U, V or W.
The research was done based on data available at pro-football-reference.com and the Times-News archives.
Readers who know of a former or current player with ties to northwestern Pennsylvania — defined as Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Venango, Forest and Warren counties — but isn't mentioned below can email sports@timesnews.com for potential inclusion in the future.
The players include the following, listed in alphabetical order with last names starting with letters S through W (No names starting with X, Y or Z were discovered through research):
Frederick 'Juice' Scruggs
Scruggs, a 2018 Cathedral Prep graduate who helped the Ramblers win consecutive PIAA Class 4A tournament titles, just completed his first NFL season.
It was an unexpectedly successful one for himself and the franchise that chose him.
The Houston Texans selected Scruggs, an offensive lineman from Penn State, in the second round of the 2023 draft. While the former Rambler was projected to be picked, many mock drafts didn’t have him taken off the board until the third round at the earliest.
An ankle injury during a preseason game delayed Scruggs’ regular season debut until midseason. However, he finally saw live action at left guard during the Texans’ Nov. 20 game vs. Baltimore and then started at that position the remainder of their season.
Houston won the AFC South Division and then beat the Cleveland Browns 45-14 in a Jan. 13 AFC wild card game. Baltimore ended Houston’s season the following week with its 34-10 victory in the conference's divisional round.
Mike Sebastian
Even by the Wild West standards of the NFL’s early decades, what Sharon graduate Sebastian did is unfathomable, even for the league in 1935.
That season, the Greensburg native appeared as a running back in games for three different teams. He competed in four games for the Philadelphia Eagles, two for the Pittsburgh Steelers and one for the Boston Redskins.
Tack on one game for the 1937 Cleveland Rams and Sebastian’s career totals concluded with 83 rushing yards, one catch for 19 yards and no touchdowns. He was a Hemet, California, resident when he died in 1989 at age 79.
Brian Stablein
The 1989 McDowell graduate was several fingertips away from breaking the hearts of Pittsburgh Steelers’ fans on the final play of the 1995 AFC Championship game.
Stablein was part of an end zone scrum to catch a Hail Mary pass from quarterback and new Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. The ball glanced off three players before it touched the ground, thus insuring Pittsburgh’s 20-16 victory and its berth in Super Bowl XXX.
That play concluded Stablein’s rookie NFL season. The former Trojans and Ohio State receiver was drafted by the Denver Broncos in 1993 but didn’t make his league debut until he played with the Colts two years later.
Stablein’s six-year NFL career was evenly split between the Colts and Detroit Lions. The current executive for JP Morgan Chase & Co. totaled 77 catches for 792 yards and three touchdowns.
Ray Tesser
The Titusville native, who died in 1982 at age 70, is notable for two reasons.
His entire gridiron career was spent on western Pennsylvania fields, which included playing in the first season for an NFL franchise now known as the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tesser attended Carnegie Mellon University in downtown Pittsburgh. Fate left him a convenient option in 1933 to compete for the first-year Steelers — then known as the Pittsburgh Pirates — and owner Art Rooney.
Tesser was listed as a right end for the franchise’s first two seasons. He caught 19 passes for 349 yards over that span, but never scored.
The Pirates didn't scored much as a team, though. They never scored more than 17 points in any game over those years.
Alexander Woodrow "Woody" Thompson
The 1971 East graduate starred for the 1969 Warriors, widely regarded at or near the top of the list of Erie County’s greatest varsity football teams.
Thompson, also a PIAA wrestling gold medalist his senior year, was recruited to play for the University of Miami. His speed, size and skill out of the backfield led the Atlanta Falcons to take him in the third round of the 1975 NFL draft.
One of his teammates was Rolland “Bay” Lawrence, a 1969 Franklin graduate.
Thompson rushed for 877 yards and a touchdown during a three-year career cut short by injuries. He told the Erie Times-News in a February 2017 story he was among the 4,500 former NFL players who filed a lawsuit against the league that alleged it was aware of the long-term effects of concussions and related injuries, but withheld that information.
The case was settled out of court in 2014.
Thompson, now 71, was working on his master’s degree for Mercyhurst University at the time of the Times-News' interview.
Bob Thurbon
The Academy graduate played for three different professional teams in as many seasons.
Thurbon was recruited from the Lions’ den to play for the University of Pittsburgh’s football team, which was a national power in the 1930s. Like many Americans, though, many of the dreams they held were disrupted by military service during World War II.
Thurbon signed as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1943. He accounted for 391 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns.
Thurbon then played for the hybrid Chicago Cardinals/Pittsburgh Steelers, informally nicknamed the “Car-Pitts” for their poor performances, when the franchises were forced to merge in 1944 because of the players' attrition due to the war.
After a season’s hiatus, Thurbon appeared in two games for the 1946 Buffalo Bisons in the upstart All-American Football Conference. He was a Charlotte, North Carolina, resident when he died in 2000 at age 82.
Eddie Wall
The former Allegheny College football player died in 1986 at age 79.
Wall recorded no statistics in the one game he appeared in for the 1930 Frankford Yellow Jackets, who played in suburban Philadelphia. The franchise is considered separate from the Philadelphia Eagles, as there was a season's gap between the Jackets' last season in 1931 and the Eagles' arrival in 1933.
Al Washington
The Erie native, 65, moved to Cleveland and graduated from Benedictine High School. He remained in state to play as a linebacker for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The New York Jets chose Washington in the fourth round of the 1981 NFL draft. He recorded one tackle during his first and only season.
Contact Mike Copper at mcopper@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNcopper.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie to NFL: Juice Scruggs among players with northwestern PA ties
