The following is the final installment of a 10-week series on the history of UW-Stout football. The series, which has run every Wednesday in The Dunn County News, is a collaboration with the The News, the Dunn County Historical Society and UW-Stout Athletics. The Stout football program will mark the centennial with a reunion celebration on Homecoming, Saturday, Oct. 1. For more information about the reunion, call the UW-Stout athletic office at 715-232-2224.
By Layne Pitt
UW-Stout Sports Information Director
Tony Beckham more or less came in the back door at UW-Stout, but he left with a Stout diploma in his hand on his way to a five-year National Football League (NFL) career, highlighting the last decade of Stout football, a decade that produced the most wins of any previous decade.
Along the way, Beckham was a three-time All-WIAC defensive back, a two-time All-American, earned the right to play in the Blue-Grey All-Star game, the first Division III player since the 1980s, and was drafted in the fourth round by the NFL's Tennessee Titans. Beckham was an integral part in the Blue Devils' 2000 WIAC championship season, Stout's first since the 1965 season.
Former head coach Ed Meierkort recruited Beckham from Ocala, Fla., to come to UW-Stout.
"Tony was the most dominant cornerback I have ever seen in the WIAC," Meierkort, who was with the Blue Devils for 10 seasons, said.
Beckham was a Division I caliber athlete coming out of Forest High School near Orlando, Fla., but did not do well enough in the ACT and SAT tests to become Division I eligible. Menomonie High School coach Joe LaBuda, who had coached in Florida before coming to Menomonie, knew of Beckham and had helped set up a pipeline of Florida players to Stout during the 1990s. Meierkort worked with UW-Stout admissions to get Beckham admitted and Beckham redshirted his first season, 1997, to get accustomed to the UW-Stout area, in particular the winter weather.
"Coach Meierkort and (assistant) coach (Carleton) Lance talked to me a lot about making the move to get an education and having fun playing football," Beckham said. "I knew I wanted to better my life. And having an education is a step to achieve that."
Beckham started all 10 games in 1998, then earned honorable mention all-WIAC honors during his second year of competition when he snagged career-best three interceptions. It was also during that year that Beckham started returning kickoffs, a trend he would continue through his final two years, when each year he returned a kickoff 85 yards or more.
Beckham made a name for himself during this junior year as a "shut down cornerback." He broke up a team-high 14 passes as a junior as Stout roared to a 10-0 regular season record and its first and only, NCAA playoff appearance.
Beckham was a usafootball.com All-America pick as a junior and as a senior, he was a first-team All-America pick by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), in addition to earning D3football.com All-American honors. He was selected to play in the Aztec Bowl, an all-star game of NCAA Division III players. Beckham was recently selected to the D3football.com All-Decade team.
But Beckham turned down the all-star honor because something more pressing was scheduled that day - graduation. Beckham would graduate with honors with a bachelor's degree in psychology.
"Tony was a survivor," Meierkort said. "He wanted to succeed when most of his classmates from Florida failed. He was a self-motivated young man that took advantage of an opportunity."
The following week, Beckham would play in the Blue-Grey Game on Christmas Day and would improve his stock for the upcoming NFL Draft later that spring. Beckham trained at UW-Madison with several of the Badger draft-hopefuls. Nearly every NFL team inquired about Beckham, and they all saw him at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Ind., that winter.
"The NFL loved his 6-foot-1 size and his great speed (4.38)," Meierkort said. "His ability to close on receivers was critical in his fourth round draft selection."
Tennessee drafted Beckham in the fourth round, easily the highest draft number for a UW-Stout player. Only three WIAC/WSUC players had been drafted higher than the fourth round before Beckham.
Beckham played four years with the Titans, earning a starting nod during the 2005 season.
"My biggest thrill in the NFL was playing in front of the world with the best of the best," Beckham said. "My next would have to have been beating out two first rounders and become the team's starter. I can't describe the feeling I had coming out of the Bubble with 70,000 fans screaming."
Beckham did not play during the 2006 season and played the 2007 season with the Detroit Lions.
During his NFL career, Beckham returned to Florida to conduct the Tony Beckham Skills Camp. He spoke at several high schools about overcoming obstacles in life and worked with Habitat for Humanity to help ensure safety for at-risk youth.
Settled in Nashville, Tenn., Beckham was a defensive back coach at Tennessee State University in 2009-10. During the 2010 season, Beckham moved to the high school scene where he was an assistant football coach and boys head soccer coach at Whites Creek High School.
Beckham and his family will be returning to Florida soon where he recently accepted the same position at Westwood High School in Fort Pierce, Fla., where he will be a football assistant and head boys soccer. Soccer is a winter sport in Florida.
Beckham and his wife, Amanda, have four children, three daughters, Arianna, Aubrey, and Alana, and a son, Ty.
The 2000s overview
The 2000 season championship set the stage for the most successful, in terms of wins and losses, decade in Stout history. The Blue Devils would post only two sub-.500 seasons during the decade and recorded 56 total wins. Stout played into contention for the conference title during much of the decade.
The Blue Devils used the legs and arm of quarterback Nick Ohman from 2001 to 2004 to keep in contention. Ohman, whose career with the Blue Devils coincided with Stout's move from Nelson Field to Don and Nona Williams Stadium, threw for 6,401 yards and 56 touchdowns and ran for 1,925 yards, tops for all Stout quarterbacks and currently seventh on the all-time rushing list. During his senior year, Ohman five times rushed for more than 100 yards in a single game and seven times threw for more than 200 yards.
The 2002 season may have been one of the tightest seasons in the WIAC. Heading into the final game of the season, UW-La Crosse had a 5-1 overall record, with four teams, including Stout, in second with a 4-2 record and could tie for a conference title with a win over La Crosse.
The Eagles took a 14-0 lead through the second quarter before Ohman engineered a 70-yard drive and scored with 55 seconds remaining in the half to cut the lead in half. The Eagles went ahead 21-7, taking advantage of a 78-yard second half kickoff return. The Blue Devils tied the score in the third quarter with a pair of TDs. La Crosse took the lead midway through the fourth quarter.
Stout took over from its own 15 with 6:55 left in the game. Using almost predominately the run (Stout attempted one pass), the Blue Devils used a heavy dose of running backs Luke Bundgaard, Ryan Englebert and Ohman to score with 37 seconds remaining.
Trailing by only one point, head coach Ed Meierkort elected to go for two points for the win. Overloading the line to the left, Ohman carried the ball wide and made his break to the goal line, diving, only to be stopped inches short by the Eagle defense, and the season ended.
The Blue Devils' fortunes in the middle of the decade dipped, but the 2008 team put together an 8-2 overall record - only the third time Stout has garnered eight or more wins in a single season - dropping back-to-back games to UW-Stevens Point and eventual national champion, UW-Whitewater. During the 2009 season, the Blue Devils rallied around the memory of teammate Marty Platek, who had died earlier in the year in a snowmobile accident. Teammates carried Platek's No. 18 jersey onto the field before every game.
Kickers continued to leave their marks at Stout. Evan Larsen earned All-America honors in 2005 and his eventual successor, Kyle Martin, set a school record when he connected on every extra point he attempted, making all 74 attempts in his career from 2006-09.
With a nod to the Little Brown Jug and Paul Bunyan's Ax, the 2009 season also marked the first year of the "War on 94" trophy between UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire. The Blue Devils have won the trophy both in 2009 and 2010, with the trophy currently being displayed in the trophy case near the Stout football offices.
