Steelers QB Roethlisberger has roots in harness racing

January 27, 2009

As this year's Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals approaches, there is virtually no stone unturned in the quest for stories, and that includes Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's tie to harness racing, which dates back to his teenage days in Ohio helping out Dr. Hobart Schoonover.

Roethlisberger, a record-setting quarterback at Findlay High School and Miami University , learned a bit about the sport from family friend and neighbor, Dr. Schoonover, now 90 and a retired cow and pig veterinarian who maintains a racetrack on his farm in Findlay .

"Ben used to come over here after football practice and jog a horse,� recalled Schoonover. �Ben liked all kinds of animals, his mother [who died when Ben was very young] had saddle horses and Ben liked dogs, but maybe not cats, because he was allergic. He�d come over here after football practice and we�d save a horse for him to jog. He�d stay and help clean up and have lunch with Mother (Mrs. Schoonover) and me. He never worked for me, but he did like to come over and jog them.�

Asked if Roethlisberger could handle a spirited horse, Schoonover chuckled and said, �We'd always save one for him that wasn�t like that--maybe one that needed to be urged quite a bit.�

Dr. and Mrs. Schoonover attended many of Roethlisberger�s high school and college games. Dr. Schoonover recalled that Roethlisberger had maturity beyond his years even then.

�He always seemed like he was older than he was,� he said. �When he played in high school, the coach�s son, who was a year older than Ben, played quarterback and Ben played tight end, until his senior year. He set all kinds of records (as a quarterback) in just one year. After the game was over, don�t you know, the little kids would just run out from under the bleachers and they all wanted to talk to Ben, to sit on his knee. Ben would stay there for the longest time and talk to them all. That�s just the way he�s always been.�

The Schoonovers, who also attend the same church as the Roethlisbergers, St. Paul United Methodist in Findlay , saw Roethlisberger at his sister Carly's high school basketball games even when he was playing as a rookie with the Steelers. Dr. Schoonover still competes with young horses at the Ohio fairs, with his twin daughters, Sharon and Sandy, helping.

There is also another well-known connection between harness racing and the Steelers as the team founder, the late Art Rooney, bred and raced Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds at his Shamrock Farm in western Maryland. His son, Tim Rooney, a 2009 Harness Racing Living Hall of Fame inductee, is president of Yonkers Raceway, with the family also having owned or operated multiple other tracks, including Green Mountain Park and the William Penn meet at Liberty Bell Racetrack. (with files from HRC)

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