Yesterday for day 28, we highlighted one of my all time favorite players that put the Boom in Boomer Sooner. Now today for day 27 we’ll be taking a look at one of the hardest hitting safeties to walk the planet.
Steve Atwater was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended Lutheran High School North in St. Louis, Missouri. Atwater was a great quarterback for Lutheran North in an option style offense.
He was recruited to play quarterback at Arkansas before making the move to safety. This move seemed to work in the favor of both the Arkansas Razorbacks and Atwater.
Atwater played from 1985 to 1988 in Fayetteville and was twice named First Team All American and three time First Team All SEC. He finished his Razorback career with fourteen interceptions in forty five games, which to this day is still the Razorback record.
In the 1989 East-West Shrine Game, Atwater recorded two interceptions which shot his draft stock through the roof. He would go onto be picked twentieth overall by the Denver Broncos.
As a Bronco, Atwater was named to eight Pro Bowls, three All Pro teams, and won two Super Bowls. In 1994, Atwater was named to the Razorback All Century Team and the All Decade Team for the 1980s. In 1998 he was inducted into the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor.
Tomorrow for day 26, we’ll stay on the theme of hard hitting safeties in the south with a guy that played at the U.