Steve Clark (2004) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Steve Clark

Induction:
2004

Can there be any more pressure in the game of football than to be a kicker. Standing out there all alone in the final seconds of a game.. Knowing that you and you alone can be the one that determines the outcome. That all the hours that you have spent practicing your kicks, all the time while kicking in your own backyard as a child pretending that you were about the try the game winning kick has come down to just one moment in time. Well tonight we induct someone who discovered himself in that situation just about as much as anyone in school history. And came through as consistently and as successfully as anyone ever has.

Never was there a better pressure kicker at Southern Miss than Steve Clark, who discovered himself in that spot many, many times in his career. Calmly he would walk onto the field in front of crowds at times of over 80,000 people and patiently measure his steps, focus on the kick, wait on the snap and calmly take care of business. Blocking out all of the distractions, zeroing in on the goalposts and kicking the football through.

Steve, a Jonesboro, Georgia native and the son of former Southern fullback Fritz Clark, began his collegiate career at Auburn, but transferred to Southern Miss. After sitting out the 1980 season, he made his debut in 1981, where he made 33 of 34 extra points and eight of 11 field goals. That team would be ranked as high as No. 8 in the country that year. One of his most famous kicks would come that season when his 40-yard field goal with just eight seconds left gave the Golden Eagles a 13-13 tie with the Alabama Crimson Tide in Birmingham. That team would go on to play in the Tangerine Bowl against Missouri and finish with a record of 9-2-1.

The following year, 1982, he continued his outstanding kicking by connecting on 31 of 33 extra points and 17 of 23 field goals. That Golden Eagle team would post a 7-4 record and pull one of the biggest upsets of the year when they defeated Bear Bryant and Alabama 38-29 in Tuscaloosa, to become the first team to win at Bryant-Denny Stadium since 1963, snapping the Tide’s 56-game winning streak there.

As a senior in 1983, he made 25 of 26 extra points and 16 of 26 field goals. That team would also go 7-4 and record wins over Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

For his career, Clark made 89 of 93 extra points and 41 of 60 field goals and scored 212 points. No one has scored more points kicking, no one in school history has made more field goals than his 41.

Ask the fans who were some of the most valuable players on those teams in 1981, 1982 and 1983 and you might hear Reggie Collier, Sammy Winder, Louis Lipps or Jerald Baylis. But ask the players and they would tell you that Steve Clark was a valuable as any of them.. What a weapon Steve Clark was it wasn’t enough to try and stop Collier and Winder and the rest of the explosive Southern Miss offense, but the few times you did stop them, Steve Clark would come on for an almost automatic three points.

Tonight as we honor Steve because of his great commitment to Southern Miss and Southern Miss football and for his magnificent feats and accomplishments on the football field. As many who have come before him have done, Steve help lay a foundation for success at Southern Miss and as we head into the 21 century, much of the exposure and publicity our teams receive today can be traced back to Steve Clark and the teams he was a part of.

Steve also represents a new era as well. Although several people have been inducted in our Hall of Fame, who also kicked, Steve becomes the first in the age of specialists to kick his way in.