What’s Better than Ben Stein’s Money??? That would be Ron Stein’s Running!!!(Former Western Guilford HS football star gone way too soon)

Just got the news the other night, and I got it in a strange sort of way…Was doing some browsing in the Facebook Land, and saw where ole Western Guilford High School student Kay McGraw was saying something about losing her friend Ron…Well that got me thinking, and made me wonder is she was talking about Ron/Ronnie Stafford, maybe Ron/Ronnie Bright, or even Ron/Ronnie George, but for sure not Ron/Ronnie Reagan, he left us a while back…

But who was this Ron, that was now gone…Then a day or so later, I saw where Cynthia Brewer was mentioning that certain family members were making arrangements, after the death of Ron Stein…Ron/Ronnie Stein???

A flash goes through your mind, “you have to be kidding me”…But no, Ronnie Stein was gone….He had died, and Ronnie Stein was from the old Western Guilford/Guilford College community…You know, with Guilford College Road, and Friendway Drive, and the like…But, Ronnie Stein???

Crazy is, as crazy does, and cuz this is not good news…Ronnie Stein was a good kid back from Guilford Junior High School, and from Western Guilford High School, and Ronnie Stein had athletic talent…

Pretty sure he was part of our beloved Guilford College Indians baseball team for at least one year while I was on the squad…With Stan Stewart, Chuck Ralls, Doug Martin, David McDonald, Mark Shaw, Gary Cox, Jimmy Hill, Clay Hopcroft, Mark Yost, and others…Team was coached by Guilford College area resident, Jerry Carrick…

Ronnie Stein now gone at age 63 or 64 years old…Hate to have to talk about this very bad news, but let’s look back at more of what Ronnie Stein was doing, and how it left an impact in the lives of so many people..

He had a brother, named Byron Stein, and Byron was loud, but not obnoxious loud…Byron Stein was energetic loud…He made noise, but you laughed it off, because he was a little guy, with a Big Motor…Byron did some wrestling with us, on the Bill Hollifield-coached WG Hornet wrestling teams, and Byron was in Mr. Dick/Richard Spencer’s band class, at Western Guilford…Byron again was small, but with what he had, that kid could bring it…

Ronnie Stein was more of the pure athlete…He could play baseball, basketball, and football…It was in football where he really left his mark…

If you want to go out with a blaze of glory, then you do it like Ronnie Stein did…I’m not sure if he even played football his junior year in high school, at Western Guilford HS, but for any time he missed with the WG Hornets as a junior, he sure made up for it as a senior…

Western Guilford head football coach Doug Henderson had a knack for pulling out the utmost best in all of the athletes he coached, and he had Ronnie Stein on his WG Football Team in Ronnie Stein’s senior year of 1976-1977…It was the Fall of 1976, and Ronnie Stein was a running back for the WG football team…

Ever hear them say, “That Kid Had One Year At The Top”…..Well, that’s what Ronnie Stein did…

Like I was saying, I’m not sure he was even part of the football team in 1975, but he sure made a difference, and carried the mail, in the Fall of 1976…Ronnie Stein was the top running back on the Western Guilford football team that year…And you’re saying Ronnie Stein??? I am was saying the same thing when I started seeing some of the numbers coming out of that year…Ronnie Stein, how in the heck can it be him that was gaining all of those yards, and scoring those touchdowns??? Where did that come from??? This was Ronnie Stein, and it was him doing the job, and the fact of the matter was, he had all of that talent bottled up inside of him, and the master of delivery, Coach Doug Henderson, he was able to pull all of that out of the Ronnie Stein….

The Ronnie Stein, the best running back on the Western Guilford football team in the Fall of 1976…Well maybe not the best, but he got the best overall results…They had Glenn Morris back there too, plus you had Darryl Harris, and Aaron Stewart was playing some running back that year too, before he moved to full time quarterback his senior year…Glenn Morris could fly and he had power, Darryl Harris had power to burn and he would run over you, and Aaron Stewart was just gifted….But, the man putting up around 10-15 TD’s and around 1,000 yards rushing, that would be Ron Stein Running…

And what did that Western Guilford team do that year, in the Fall of 1976 with Ronnie Stein enjoying his “One Year At The Top”??? Western Guilford defeated Morehead for the Mid-State 3-A Conference Championship, at Morehead on a cold Friday night in November, when Mark Midkiff kicked a field goal in Overtime, to make the WG Hornets, Conference Champions…Mark Midkiff was one of Ronnie Stein’s best friends back in the day….

Ronnie Stein got it running, and he and his team ran all the way to the Conference Championship, and they won their First Round NCHSAA Playoff Game…That is how good this Western Guilford team was…And one of their team leaders, was The Ronnie Stein…

And why was this 1976 Western Guilford Conference Championship Team so good??? As individuals they were good, but as a Collective Unit/Collective Group, they were outstanding….This bunch played so well TOGETHER

You had Chuck Ralls at QB, and he was not as fast as “Swifty” Mark Guenther, or Booker/Chuck Ralls did not have the grit or determination of a Daniel Barrow, but Chuck Ralls had the quarterback smarts, and that is all that matters, and that is what it took to bring the Title back from Eden Morehead High School…Western had that group of seniors who supported Ralls and Stein in that backfield, with O-linemen like Grady Privette, Mike Shelton, John Michaux and others…

John Michaux had started for at least three years on the O-Line, while Shelton and Privette had lots of playing time up front, as well…Then you other senior linemen like Dewayne Devane(cousin of Craig and Artie Loggins), and you Bubba Needham(junior), and let’s don’t forget the senior D-lineman with the long blonde locks of hair, and that would Jeff Stokley, another very good friend of Ronnie Stein back in the day…You take Ronnie Stein, Mark Midkiff, and Jeff Stokley, and they could eat a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop out of business…And there was the WR Mark Bryant, who had his best year catching passes from Aaron Stewart on that WG State Championship team in the Fall of 1977…Also add in Bill Ahrens from that 1976 WG Fall Football team…Bill Ahrens knows the history of Western Guilford athletics, inside and out…

But, it was Ronnie Stein, who probably had the least amount of experience of any of the players we mentioned above, but he made such a big impact his senior season on the WG football team, that we are still sharing his fond memories here today…Pretty sure Ronnie Stein, and Mark Midkiff, were not on the WG football team in the Fall of ’75, but here they both were, coming alive and living their dreams out to the fullest, on a Western Guilford’s first football conference Championship Team, in the history of the Western Guilford High School….

An unlikely Champion, but a True Title Taker…Ronnie Stein…And you look back at the friendships that Ronnie Stein, Mark Midkiff, Jeff Stokley, Chuck Ralls, John Michaux, Mike Shelton, Grady Privette, Darryl Harris and others formed/forged, and those will never be forgotten….

Ronnie Stein got running, and ran all the way to a Football Conference Title…His work on earth is done, and now we say with those who are reading along with us here on this day:

RIP:Ronnie/Ron Stein

**********This young man has left us way too soon, but just keep this in mind…This young man, Ronnie/Ron Stein, left us a CHAMPION!!!!!**********