'A Flash in time' | Epilogue: Jack Lambert talks Kent State's greatest football team, more
"A flash in time," a series recalling Kent State's greatest football era, teems with people talking about Jack Lambert.
It lacks the voice of Lambert himself.
The first man to the quarterback was the last man to be reached for an interview, too late for inclusion in the seven installments.
As publication of the series wrapped, though, Lambert reached out.
"You can thank Tom Buchheit," Lambert said from his home in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh. "It's a favor to him."
Buchheit, a former teammate of Lambert who lives in Massillon, encouraged his friend to chime in. Lambert agreed to his first media interview in decades.
He is a fitting subject — the best player on the best team — for a series epilogue.
Lambert is best remembered as the Pro Football Hall of Fame middle linebacker from Steelers teams that won four 1970s Super Bowls.
His road to a Portage County university, Kent State, began at a Portage County high school, Crestwood.
Lambert's famous Pittsburgh persona includes a death-star glare and blood on the chin of a toothless scowl.
Legend of Jack Lambert begins at Crestwood High School
He lost his front teeth when a Crestwood basketball teammate, Steve Poling, accidentally rammed his head into his mouth. He wore a bridge supporting false teeth and took it off when he strapped on a helmet.
Wearing double-zero, No. 00, he was a tall, slender Crestwood quarterback and defensive star for a conference championship team.
His high school football coach, Gerry Myers, had been a captain at Miami (Ohio).
"I thought Miami was a beautiful school," Lambert recalls. "Gerry Myers was trying to get me in down there. I guess they watched films and had no interest."
Lambert was a beast in basketball, a scorer-rebounder who stood close to 6-foot-4. His Crestwood basketball coach, Bill Cox, knew Kent State football coach Dave Puddington and persuaded him to pursue Lambert.
Lambert's explanation of why he became a Golden Flash: "Nobody else wanted me."
He committed at about the time world history was being made on campus.
"The shootings happened in May," he said. "I got there in September. It wasn't a real good atmosphere."
He didn't see himself as a quarterback and was glad Puddington assigned him to defense.
"Who wouldn't rather hit than be hit?" he said.
He would rather not have begun college as a defensive end, though. He weighed 205 pounds, way too light even for that era.
"I tried everything to gain weight," he said. "I looked more like a basketball player.
"Even in the NFL, I would be out in Hawaii for a week at the Pro Bowl, and guys would see me with my shirt off and say, 'Are you all right?' I was that skinny."
Jack Lambert becomes standout linebacker on Don James' Kent State teams
Don James replaced Puddington as head coach in 1971. The new regime moved Lambert to middle linebacker, where he replaced Bob Bender.
The '71 team went 3-8. The '72 team won the Mid-American Conference championship.
"Sure, it was a big deal," Lambert said. "It was the first MAC football championship in the history of the school."
It remains the only one. Kent State won division titles in 2012 and 2021 but lost the MAC championship game both years.
There were no MAC divisions and no conference championship games when Lambert played.
"There was a championship game," he protested. "It was Kent State-Miami."
The Golden Flashes won at Miami in 1972 en route to the MAC title.
They lost at home to Miami with a championship at stake in 1973.
"We were a lot better in 1973 than we were the year before," Lambert said. "Losing to Miami in 1973 was extremely devastating … one of the two most devastating losses I ever played in."
A late-hit penalty against Lambert was a key play.
"The referee said, 'You hit him too hard … you didn't have to hit him that hard,'" Lambert said. "I said to him, 'Since when it is a penalty for hitting someone too hard?'
"Years later, I had the exact same thing happen in Cleveland. The referee said, 'Lambert, you didn't have to hit him that hard.' Awwww, Lord."
The '73 loss to Miami sticks in his craw. The other "devastating loss" was to the Oakland Raiders in the 1976 AFC championship game. He regarded that as the best of the Steelers teams; except, against the Raiders, running backs Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were out with injuries.
Jack Lambert carves out Hall of Fame career with his fierce play on 4 Super Bowl champion Steeler teams
In 1990, when Lambert was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he picked his Kent State position coach, Dennis Fitzgerald, as his presenter.
"Dennis taught me how to play with leverage," Lambert said. "I used the same techniques in the pros that I used at Kent State."
He employed some of his own techniques.
Two hits on Browns quarterback Brian Sipe got him kicked out of games. This did not surprise Ted Bowersox and Daryl Hall, Kent State quarterbacks who were knocked out by Lambert in practice.
"The game at Cleveland was always my favorite," Lambert said. "There was something about that place.
"They had rusty nails and broken glass in the end zone. The visitors' locker room was like a closet. Some guys coming from big college programs and fancy stuff didn't know how to take it. To me, it was history."
The Steelers won Super Bowls in four of his first six NFL seasons. Their record was 42-31 in his five seasons after that.
"The hardest part for me was the first year after I retired," he said. "What got me the most was I wasn't sore. I didn't have any pain.
"Pain was such a big part of my life. I played football for 20 consecutive years. It was the strangest thing.
"As time went on, each year got a little easier."
He still watches NFL games, but not as appointment TV. Often he does something else on Sundays.
"I like to watch college football," he said. "I'm an Ohio boy, so I'm upset by the fact we lost to Michigan."
He was 16 when Ohio State beat O.J. Simpson and the USC Trojans to win a national championship.
"I remember it well," he said.
All-time draft whiff by Cleveland meant 'a Browns fan' became a Pittsburgh Steelers legend
Lambert grew up on Cleveland football.
"I was a Browns fan for 21 years," he said, noting that ended when the Steelers drafted him in Round 2, shortly after the Browns picked a tackle who never appeared in an NFL game. "Jim Brown was my favorite player. He was always in card shows, he and Bobby Mitchell. If I was back at the Hall of Fame I'd come up to them and say, 'You mind if I sit down with my heroes?'"
Lambert was in Cleveland Municipal Stadium for the win that gave the Browns their last NFL championship.
"It was 1964," he said. "I was 12 years old. Gary Collins caught those touchdown passes.
"I would go to some Browns games. I went to Cleveland Barons games — I was a big hockey fan."
Jack Lambert enjoys life after the NFL in Western Pennsylvania in 'a good place to raise kids'
Lambert has chosen to live outside the public eye, aside from occasional autograph-show appearances. He spent 10 years as a deputy game warden. He volunteered as a youth coach and in general helped in Crawford County youth sports.
"I don't talk to anybody (in the media)," he said. "This is the first interview I've done with anybody in 30 years."
His Pennsylvania home is on a piece of land covering more than 100 acres.
"I grew up in the country, and while I was playing football toward the end of my career, I bought this property," he said. "I've got lots of woods and a place for the kids and the grandkids to fish.
"It's nice. We love it. It's been a good place to raise kids.
"I have four kids and six grandkids and another one coming in January.
"I've been blessed. I can still go out and work every day. I'm doing something outside every day.
"I'm very thankful, because a lot of guys my age have a lot of issues. I haven't had anything serious. I've been blessed in that regard."
During a 30-minute interview, Lambert was courteous, helpful and even charming. Lambert's friend Buchheit said he is smarter and sharper than people might imagine.
A few times when Lambert laughed, it was to acknowledge how long it has been since his Kent State days.
He treasures winning championships at Crestwood, Kent State and Pittsburgh as if the level of play didn't matter.
"I played the same way at Crestwood that I did at Kent State and then in the pros," he said. "I played that way I did because I was so light. Most of the running backs weighed more than I did.
"I played with a lot of intensity. I had to be ready to play every single week or I'd have got killed out there.
"I did the best I could.
"We won championships in high school, college and the pros. That's the thing I remember most about it."
He turned 71 in July. How is he feeling?
"I've never been this old before," he said. "I don't know how I'm supposed to feel."
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jack Lambert interview in series on greatest Kent State football team
