MEADVILLE, Pa. – As an offensive lineman, players know that they will not be in the limelight, they won’t see their names in the press clippings, and won’t have the notoriety of some of their other offensive teammates. Wanting to get dirty and to battle in the trenches, along with an unselfish attitude is what the offensive linemen live for. No one exemplified being an offensive lineman quite like Ron Bendekovic, and it is that attitude that helped pave the way to the Hall of Fame, as the 1993 graduate will be honored as a member of the 26th class of the Allegheny College Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Sunday June 3, at the Tippie Alumni Center.
“Ron was a guy who just loved to play the game of football,” said Ken O’Keefe, former head coach at Allegheny and current offensive coordinator at the University of Iowa. “He had one of the biggest hearts we ever had on the team, and was one of the most unselfish guys I have ever been around.”
A Monaca, Pa., native, Bendekovic came to Allegheny College after being named All-Conference in two consecutive years as a defensive tackle and one as an offensive lineman at Center High School. He came to Meadville as a defensive tackle and picked up four assisted stops during his freshman year en route to earning a letter in his opening season.
A year later, the strongman (he maxed out his bench press at 385 pounds and squat at 550 pounds) was moved to the offensive line, where he spent the season as the backup offensive tackle for a team that went through the season 13-0-1 and won the NCAA Division III National Title.
As a junior in 1991, Bendekovic got his first chance at the starting offensive tackle position, and excelled. He helped the team to a perfect 10-0 record in the regular season, before winning a game in the NCAA Division III Playoffs, falling in the quarterfinals and ending the year with an 11-1 record. The year also saw Bendekovic team up with his younger brother Jason, a freshman on the squad.
In 1991 the offense was nearly unstoppable, setting team records for rushing yards (2,753), rushing touchdowns (39), total points (375) and most consecutive victories (24 dating back to the 1990 season). Individually, running back Stanley Drayton, a member of the 2005 class of the Hall of Fame, broke the single season school records in nearly every rushing category, including rushing attempts (245), rushing yards (1,375), rushing touchdowns (27) and total points in a season (168).
The gaudy numbers that the offense put up, and the school’s second consecutive berth to the NCAA Division III National Playoffs, helped Bendekovic earn himself deserving All-America awards from Champion and Football Gazette, where he earned first and second team honors, respectively in addition to being named to the All-North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) First Team.
As a senior the elder Bendekovic spent the year as the team’s co-captain, and started on the same offensive line as his younger brother. The team finished the season 8-2, missing the NCAA playoffs. The postseason accolades rolled in, coming in the form of first team honors from the Associated Press and Kodak, second team honors from Champion and special mention from the Football Gazette, in addition to earning his second consecutive All-NCAC First Team nod.
During his four years at Allegheny, the program was at the early stages of its renaissance, and Bendekovic’s four years, which saw the team go 38-7-1 with two NCAA bids, were the predecessor for teams that advanced to four more NCAA tournaments and had the sixth most wins in Division III in the 1990’s.
The athletic side of the sports scene did not tell everything about Bendekovic. He was a person that everyone wanted to be around.
“He took advantage of every opportunity he ever had, whether it was in the classroom or in on the football field,” said O’Keefe. “He was a real leader on and off of the field. He set a great example for his teammates to follow and was a lot of fun to be around. He had a great sense of humor, he was able to be a serious football player, great All-American and at the same time keep a great perspective on things.”
“The guy was a powerful player,” said Joe Philbin, former Allegheny offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, and current Green Bay Packers’ offensive coordinator. “He was an excellent football player and an excellent leader. He loved the game of football. He was a lot of fun to coach. He loved to play the game. He was the kind of guy that showed what an Allegheny football player should be. He was very competitive, very dedicated. His teammates, the coaches and I felt that way about him. As a player he is everything that you would want as an offensive lineman.”
The story doesn’t end there for Bendekovic, as following his graduation, he started his career as assistant coach, with his first job coming in Ada, Ohio when he was the graduate assistant coach for Ohio Northern University. He then had stints at Ohio University, Kentucky State University, Marietta College, Lenoir Rhyne College and Baldwin-Wallace College, before ending back at Ohio Northern University, under Dean Paul, who coached the running backs at Allegheny while Bendekovic was a player.
“He coached with me for a year at Ohio University,” said Philbin. “He was in a very difficult situation, but he was always poised as a coach, and never lost his composure. He cared about his players a great deal. He was a class human being. He was an excellent football coach, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.”
He won the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Assistant Coach of the Year in two straight seasons while at Ohio Northern, the only assistant coach in league history to be able to claim the honor twice.
“Ron was very well liked here at Northern,” said Paul. “He was well respected by faculty staff and students alike. He was the first guy I hired when I got the job here. I knew Ron as a player at Allegheny. He made some unbelievable contributions here in a short time.”
Bendekovic was working as an assistant coach for Ohio Northern University in 2005 when he passed away on November 2 at the age of 34.
Click here to visit the Allegheny College Athletics website.
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