Buckeye Pipelines: Paul Warfield, Korey Stringer, Maurice Clarett and Boom Herron Among

Buckeye Pipelines puts the spotlight each week on a high school program who has had numerous and notable alumni go on to play for the Scarlet and Gray.

This week, we take a look at a school that has produced sixteen Ohio State football players since 1970: Warren G. Harding. Since the turn of the century, five Raiders have played for the Buckeyes, including freshman sensation Maurice Clarett.

WARREN G. HARDING

LOCATION: WARREN, OH ALL-AMERICAN CONFERENCE 2021 RECORD 5–6

5 OHSAA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS 3 STATE FOOTBALL TITLES 1 QUIZ BOWL STATE TITLE

8TH-MOST PLAYERS ON OHIO STATE’S ROSTER (16) 8TH-MOST ROSTER APPEARANCES (50) (1970-2021)

Another notable recent Buckeye from Harding is former Ohio State running back Dan “Boom” Herron. Now living in Detroit, working in the trucking business and engaged to a successful lawyer, Herron told Eleven Warriors that playing for the Raiders and coach Thom McDaniels had a big impact on his Ohio State career and life.

“First off, I’ve got to give a shoutout to coach McDaniels, because without him, and obviously all of my other coaches and my teammates, I wouldn’t have been able to make it to Ohio State,” Herron said. “When Coach McDaniels came, man, he just turned everything up. He’s not just a great coach, but a great person. A great person that you would want your child to be around to grow up and become a man. He helped us all become better football players, but also better men. He did so much for all of us, on and off the field.”

Notable Buckeyes from Warren G. Harding

RB Paul Warfield (1961-63)

The most notable graduate from Harding is Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Paul Warfield. He was a two-sport athlete at Ohio State as he played football and earned two varsity letters on the track team.

In Woody Hayes’ offense, Warfield was utilized as a running back. He was an All-American as a senior and earned All-Big Ten honors as a junior and senior. The Cleveland Browns selected him with the 11th selection of the 1964 NFL draft.

As a rookie with the Browns, Warfield was moved to wide receiver where he excelled. The combination of Jim Brown’s power running and Warfield’s speed on the outside produced an NFL Championship Game victory over the Baltimore Colts. Following the 1969 season, the Browns traded the future Hall of Fame receiver to the Miami Dolphins, where he won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1973 and 1974.

During his high school football career at Warren G. Harding, Warfield scored a combined 185 points during his junior and senior seasons. He also played basketball and was a standout track athlete. Warfield won the broad jump state title in 1958 and set the Class AA state record as he claimed the 180-yard hurdles title in 1960.  

OT Korey Stringer (1992-94)

Stringer and was a two-time All-American and All-Big Ten honoree and the Buckeyes’ team MVP in 1994. In 1993, Stringer and Dan Wilkinson earned All-American honors as sophomores, becoming the first Ohio State sophomores to do so since Ken Fritz and Art Schlichter in 1979. Stringer was also the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year in 1992 and was named the conference’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 1993 and 1994.

He went on to play for the Minnesota Vikings, who selected Stringer with the 24th overall pick of the 1995 NFL Draft. He made the Pro Bowl in 2000, but tragically died after suffering a heat stroke during training camp in August 2001. Minnesota retired his No. 77 and his name is in the Vikings’ Ring of Honor. 

Stringer was an All-Ohioan for Warren G. Harding as a junior and senior. He was also the Division I Lineman of the Year and an All-American as a senior. The Raiders went undefeated and won the state championship his junior year.

RB Maurice Clarett (2002)

Clarett helped lead the Buckeyes to a perfect 14–0 season and national championship during his lone season with the team. Clarett exploded onto the scene as he raced for 175 yards and three touchdowns in the season opener against Texas Tech. He finished the year with then-Ohio State freshman records of 1,237 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns.

He played a key role in Ohio State’s Fiesta Bowl victory over Miami to win the national title. Following an interception by Miami safety Sean Taylor, Clarett chased him down and stripped the ball away to get possession back for the Buckeyes. On his final play as a Buckeye, he scored the game-winning touchdown in Ohio State’s double overtime victory.

Regrettably, Clarett’s Ohio State career ended following the 2002 undefeated season. He ran into legal trouble after a brief stint with the NFL’s Denver Broncos, but has since turned his life around. Clarett founded The Red Zone in 2016 to provide mental health, addiction and recovery, school-based social work and other services in the Youngstown area. Clarett also has a podcast, The Champ Program, with Jay Richardson.

Clarett was Ohio’s Mr. Football, a U.S. Army All-American and USA Today’s Offensive High School Player of the Year during his senior season at Warren G. Harding, where he spent his final three years of high school after attending Austintown-Fitch as a freshman.

RB Dan “Boom” Herron (2007-11)

Herron was Ohio State’s captain in 2010 and the Buckeyes’ team MVP in 2011. He rushed for 1,155 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2010, including a career-high 190 yards in a 38-14 victory over Penn State, and the Buckeyes won three Big Ten titles, a Rose Bowl and a Sugar Bowl during his time on the team. 

Herron was one of five players suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season, his senior season at Ohio State, after violating NCAA rules by selling team memorabilia. Herron still rushed for 675 yards and three touchdowns in seven games and went on to be selected in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft, but he’s happy that college athletes are able to benefit from their name, image and likeness now so they don’t have to go through what he did.

“It would have been great. Some of us may have gotten drafted higher, some of us may have had longer careers,” Herron said. “I am happy for the guys that can make a couple of dollars off their names, get what they deserve.

“Do I feel like we were done wrong? Absolutely. Look at what’s going on now. It’s just like you know, it’s crazy. Ten years ago guys got suspended and their names get tarnished and their careers get tarnished by something that’s basically getting praised today.”

At Warren G. Harding, Herron was an All-Ohioan and ran for 1,434 yards and 18 touchdowns as a senior. He was ranked as the second-best running back in the state of Ohio in the 2007 recruiting class.