1959 Syracuse football national champion Bob Stem dead at 84

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Former Syracuse football player Bob Stem, a center and linebacker for the Orange’s 1959 National Championship team, died Friday night. Stem had been suffering from a long illness and was in hospice care in New Jersey. He was 84.

Stem, originally from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, was a member of SU’s football team from 1958-61 and a letterwinner in his last three seasons with the program. Following his time with the Orange, he was drafted in the 25th round of the 1962 NFL Draft by the Boston Patriots and the 19th round by the New York Giants. He went on to play defensive line, offensive guard and center for a season with the Mohawk Valley Falcons of the Atlantic Coast Football League.

Stem then had a historic run as a high school football coach at Phillipsburg and Bethlehem Catholic High Schools in Pennsylvania, finishing his 34-year career with a 285-96-5 record. In 2014, he was honored at the university’s 50th annual Letterwinner of Distinction awards alongside five former SU athletes, including Pearl Washington.

“It was really the greatest honor I’ve ever received when you consider all of the great athletes and coaches that come through Syracuse,” Stem said to reporters at the event. “Next to marrying my wife [Janice] and the birth of my children and grandchildren, this was maybe the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

He was a co-captain of the Orange when they beat Miami in the Liberty Bowl one year after beating Texas in the 1960 Cotton Bowl that helped Syracuse win the National Championship.