BLACKBURN
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A man with a pair of Super Bowl championship rings will join fellow Marysville High School alumni in the school’s athletic Hall of Fame on Friday evening.
Chase Blackburn, a 2001 MHS graduate, is one of three new inductees, along with his Monarch gridiron teammate Keith Slone and three-sport girls standout Karen Hyland.
They will be enshrined during the 20th anniversary of the Hall of Fame.
Blackburn was a football and basketball star for the Monarchs.
He earned first-team All-Ohio, Central District and Ohio Capital Conference accolades on the football field as a linebacker-tight end.
Blackburn helped lead the Monarchs to the 2000 Division II state Final Four and an OCC championship.
He earn district and conference honors on the basketball court as well, finishing his career with 632 points.
After high school, Blackburn played football at the University of Akron and in 2005, signed as a free agent linebacker with the New York Giants.
He won Super Bowl championships in 2008 and 2012 with the Giants before finishing his playing career with the Carolina Panthers.
Blackburn joined the Panther coaching staff after his playing days were over. He was recently named Carolina’s special teams coordinator.
Blackburn said the call from Hall of Fame committee chairman Steve Devine caught him off-guard.
“I had hoped to get into the Hall of Fame sometime,” Blackburn said. “I really wasn’t sure what the requirements were.
“Steve called me with the news and it’s a great feeling.”
Blackburn said one of his greatest sport memories at MHS was playing on a pair of 10-0 regular season football teams during his junior and senior seasons.
“Losing to Piqua in the state semifinals my senior year was painful, but it was still a great season,” he said. “I loved how we progressed as a team that year.
“I also enjoyed all the friendships I made at Marysville through sports,” Blackburn said. “It’s especially nice going into the Hall of Fame with Keith.”
He will also be joining his varsity coaches, Rich Weiskircher (football) and Jim Kaufman (basketball) in the Monarch Hall of Fame.
Blackburn also remembered playing in the District 10 Coaches All-Star basketball game after his senior season and in the Big 33 and North-South All-Star football games.
Blackburn said he learned many life lessons at Marysville.
“The lessons I learned helped prepare me for playing in college and the NFL and now with my coaching career,” he said. “Jack (defensive coordinator Ruetty) and Rich were very good high school coaches.
“I feel I was very prepared for college football when I went to Akron,” said Blackburn. “It was a big jump, but I felt I was more ready than my other college teammates after how I was coached at Marysville.”
Blackburn said the coaching he received at MHS put him on a career path after he stopped playing football.
“That’s why I got my degree in math,” he said. “I wanted to be a teacher and coach.
“I want to pass on to the players I coach the lessons I received while playing at Marysville High School,” he said. “I want to empower them to be successful in life.”