Sam Gash and wife Alicia.

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He played 12 seasons in the NFL and coached in it for 10 more. But it was PSU assistant Jim Caldwell and Joe Paterno who plucked Gash out of rural western North Carolina and changed his life. Here's the first of two parts on an NFL All-Pro and Super Bowl champion who wondered when he arrived at Penn State whether he was good enough to play.

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Sam Gash was a diamond for sure. And he certainly lived in the rough, the rural town of Hendersonville, tucked in a southwestern corner of North Carolina that feels a lot more like Tennessee.

But it wasn’t as though he was hidden from college football bird dogs. If you can play, they will find you.

So, when assistant coach Jim Caldwell arrived late in the recruiting process amid assembling Joe Paterno’s 1987 class, he had competition for Gash. The power fullback had been offered a scholarship as a mere sophomore by nearby Clemson. He had taken trips to North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Georgia and even UCLA where he could have lined up behind a quarterback named Troy Aikman.

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Gash had briefly verbally committed to Georgia with the stipulation that coach Vince Dooley not tell anyone so that he could enjoy his official visit. But when word somehow leaked out, Gash reneged.

Anyway, coming far north was an appealing prospect. Gash had reasons to leave the region:

“I knew I wanted to get out of there. Get away from North Carolina.”

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From left: Penn State assistant coach Jim Caldwell, Eric Gash, Betty Gash, Joe Paterno and Sam Gash during his commitment in February 1987 at the Gash home in Hendersonville, N.C.

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It wasn’t just for the sake of adventure.

“My dad drank a lot. He was an alcoholic. I just had to get away.”

As Gash tells it, his father Sam Sr. abused his mother Betty, “the strongest individual I’ve ever known in my life.”

Sam Jr. was able to usually shield his little brother Eric, 13 months younger, by sheltering him somewhere out of the way:

“I’d put him in a room and say, ‘Don’t worry, I got this.’”

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Some kids of alcoholics are merely scarred by words. For others like young Sam, it was worse than that:

“I got both sides of my dad – both the verbal and the physical.”

And then, he had to watch when his drunken father sometimes took a hand to his mother before his eyes. Did he try to stand up to him?

"By the time I was 13 or so, I was pretty good size. I was 180 pounds in the eighth grade. Maybe it was one of them deals where God made me grow quick just so I could stand up.

“But one day, I just told him, ‘If you hit her again, I’ll kill you.’

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Gash as a fresh-faced freshman in 1987.

Penn State photo

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Somehow, Gash says now he doesn't feel like an abused kid, only a tempered one -- which gives you an idea of the man's resilience:

"It was tough back then and it made me tough. I'm thankful it was me and no one else. My dad taught me how to be the man I am -- by learning what not to do.

"My mom caught it all and I just tried to deflect some. She was abused; I wasn't. She was the tough one."

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Still, it's fair to say Caldwell had a receptive audience when he spoke of a remote campus, three states and 600 miles to the northeast. Later to have a long career as an NFL head coach and assistant, Caldwell stressed to Betty Gash that he would care for her son as a good father would. His pitch piqued her interest.

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Sam Gash as a Penn State fullback on the 1991 team that finished #3 in the nation.

AP photo

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And then arrived the closer.

Just named Sports Illustrated's "Sportsman of the Year," Paterno was perhaps at the height of his national popularity. The stunning Fiesta Bowl upset of No. 1-ranked Miami had come only days before.

“They had just won the national championship,” said Gash. “I knew they were losing two good fullbacks in Steve Smith and Tim Manoa who were going to the pros and had long careers.”

When Paterno arrived at Hendersonville High School that day in January 1987 to seal the deal, he was a star:

“Oh, yeah. And it worked,” said Gash. “It was nothing but respect.

“He came in and basically told my mom, she ain’t gotta worry about nothing and he runs a tight ship and when I come up, I’ll be taken care of.”

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I asked Gash if Paterno spoke exclusively to his mother:

“Completely. I just sat there while they talked. And by the end of it, my mom was: ‘This is where you’re going.’”

Another successful recruiting of a mom by Paterno. Which, most times, is all that matters.

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When Gash committed to Penn State, it catalyzed what would become a 22-year NFL career, 12 as a player, 10 more as an assistant coach. He was the ultimate lead-blocking fullback, a component so valued in offenses of the time that, in the meat of his playing career, he was elected to the Pro Bowl in 1999 with the Bills – without carrying the ball a single time. He helped the Ravens win the Super Bowl the next year.

“It all started at Penn State with me wanting to earn respect,” said Gash. “And that’s the way Joe was. He wanted to see you going hard. He wanted to see you practice techniques you would use in the game. He often said, ‘Practice will be harder than games. Games will be easy. Let’s just get there.’”

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Gash (11), Terry Smith (8) and Tony Sacca (19) break the huddle during the 1991 Miami game at the Orange Bowl.

ABC Sports

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Gash, now 49, lives with his wife Alicia and their five sons in Green Bay where his last assistant coach job ended with his firing from the Packers staff as running backs coach after the 2015 season. He’s been helping to raise the boys and dabbling in high school coaching since while seeking a suitable scouting position with an NFL club.

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He was the prototypical Penn State fullback, a young man of average size and speed who wasn’t immediately sure he could hang with the recruits at a program that had won it all the year he was recruited, but persevered.

Gash is best remembered as the lead blocker for Blair Thomas on the 1987 and 1988 teams and later Richie Anderson in 1990 and 1991. His college career was bisected by an injury redshirt in 1989 when an ankle injury and two deaths in his family knocked him sideways. But he returned in 1990 and finally became a captain on the underrated 1991 team that finished ranked No. 3 in the nation.

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Sam Gash (11) prepares to blast Notre Dame linebacker Demetrius DuBose (31) to help spring Richie Anderson (20) on a long run in a 35-13 rout of the Irish on Nov. 16, 1991 at Beaver Stadium.

ABC Sports

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But the road to that end was a winding one.

Gash is one of those guys who’s friendly to many and close to few. He came to Penn State anxious to prove himself. But he also kept his distance initially:

“In college, I was cool with everybody and I would hang out with everybody. But I would go to the movies by myself. I don’t know why. I just kind of liked the solitude, give me time to think about what I wanted to do, about my path.

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"If I'd see anybody, I talked to everybody. Everybody knew Gash, but then they didn't know Gash. And I kept it that way. I don't like talking about myself.

“And if I got problems, there’s a whole lot of problems out there worse than mine. That was kind of my mentality.”

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Sam Gash (11) runs at Miami in 1991. He gained 835 yards on 225 rushes during his 4-year Penn State career as a fullback from 1987 to 1991.

AP photo

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He adopted that stoic resolve from Betty, a tireless assembly line worker at the local General Electric lighting systems factory who worked a 6 a.m. – 2 p.m. shift. Gash trained hard and played harder:

“I wanted to be that guy that, when everybody else is dead-dog tired and bending over, I’m standing up saying, ‘Let’s go some more.’”

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Paterno noticed the teenager and he played substantial snaps as a freshman and sophomore.

But after the death of his father and the maternal grandmother Mary Jane who helped raise him in 1989, and a third wrist surgery, a training-camp ankle injury forced a medical redshirt. He was at once conflicted about never coming to terms with Sam Sr.:

“That just hurt. I was like: Damn, I ain’t ever gonna make up with him now.”

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Gash fell into a funk and began to drink with indiscretion – something he’d never done for fear of turning out like his father. The football program’s academic advisor Don Ferrell noticed changes in him and alerted Paterno.

“I was done,” said Gash. “I didn’t do so well in college that year.”

Paterno called in Gash and arranged regular late-night sessions for him with sports psychologist Dave Yukelson and a Children of Alcoholics group.

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Penn State's 1991 captains: Darren Perry (9), Mark D'Onofrio (38), Keith Goganious (42), Sam Gash (11), Al Golden (89) and Terry Smith (8).

Penn State photo

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“Joe changed my life,” said Gash. “I was drinking because I was upset. He set the changes in motion and then Dave helped keep it there. He got me on the right track.”

By the 1990 season when he got back on the field, Gash felt emotionally and mentally confident:

“I was like: Know what? I can play here. I had questions for the longest time, because I played hard, but I didn’t feel like I had direction.”

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In 1991, he was a captain with Terry Smith, Al Golden, Darren Perry, Mark D’Onofrio and Keith Goganius on a team that might never be recognized for being as good as it was. The Nittany Lions stumbled early at Southern California, then lost a sweltering trench war against eventual national champion Miami in the Orange Bowl, 26-20. They then ran the table, including a 35-13 dismantling of #12 Notre Dame and capped by a 42-17 Fiesta Bowl win with a second-half tidal wave over #10 Tennessee.

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Gash was an integral part of that team and pro scouts noticed him enough that he was chosen in the 8th round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots.

That set in motion a dozen-year professional career with the Pats, Bills and Ravens that included two All-Pro honors and two Super Bowls, and in which he helped spring some of the most accomplished feature backs in football history -- Curtis Martin, Thurman Thomas, Jamal Lewis and Priest Holmes. It included a championship in 2000 with Baltimore and lifetime friendships including one of the great coaches of all time, a man Gash still calls just to talk.

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Cue to the 13:00 mark to watch Sam Gash break three tackles on a first-quarter screen pass in the 26-20 loss against eventual 1991 national champion Miami in the Orange Bowl.

ABC Sports

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In Monday’s second part, Gash talks about that Hall of Fame coach, his two decades in the NFL, the memory loss he fears is due to repeated concussions and where he goes from here.

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EMAIL/TWITTER DAVID JONES: djones@pennlive.com

Follow @djoneshoop

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