Sports
Legends from Hawken, Gilmour & Mayfield Make Plain Dealer's Top 50
A panel picked O.J. McDuffie, Eric Penick and Dave Diebolt for the top 50 list.
Three Mayfield-Hillcrest area high school football legends made the Plain Dealer's ranking of the top 50 Northeast Ohio players of the past 50 years, which was fully unveiled Friday.
Euclid's Robert Smith, a 1990 graduate who went on to play for Ohio State and the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, was ranked No. 1.
Each of the public and private high schools in the Mayfield area was represented in the final ranking:
- No. 8: O.J. McDuffie, running back/defensive back, Hawken School, 1988. McDuffie set Hawken's record for career all-purpose yards with 7,302. He was an All-American at Penn State University and played nine years for the Miami Dolphins.
- No. 33: Eric Penick, running back, Gilmour Academy, 1971. Penick, who won five state track titles, was a starting back on the Notre Dame team that won the national championship in 1973.
- No. 45: Dave Diebolt, linebacker/tight end, Mayfield High School, 1987. Diebolt was an all-state Parade Magazine prep All-America selection who went on to play tight end at Michigan.
What do you think of the list? Any greats from the area who were forgotten? Let us know in the comments.
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