Stig Stories
The best of Coach Stig through the years, from mopeds to sunflower seeds to racquetball and everything in-between.
When John Stiegelmeier, the all-time winningest coach in South Dakota State University football history, retired following the Jackrabbits first Division I national championship, it signaled the culmination of a decades-long program build that started from the ground up. A Selby, South Dakota native, “Coach Stig,” or simply, “Stig,” was unique and unapologetically himself. Whether it was his look, mannerisms or sayings, Stig stayed true to his core principals and who he was as a person, making him an endearing figure on SDSU’s campus, the community of Brookings and the state of South Dakota.
The number of players, coaches, fans, athletic trainers, bus drivers, media members and others that he interacted with over the years is immense. For my day job, I was asked to write a formal piece about Stig's retirement for an upcoming publication. I was limited on space but reached out to a healthy number of people from his past and present to get their thoughts on his retirement. There was so many good stories that didn’t make the final draft that I figured other people might be interested in reading what was left over. Here are the highlights:
Josh Tutje – student coach at SDSU from 2010-2013. Now, principal at a junior high school in Colorado.
When I came to SDSU for my first spring practice, I had been invited by the offensive coordinator at the time. Stig came up and introduced himself to my dad and me. He showed genuine care and interest in getting to know us, and I watched him do that with recruits, media members, and any other people that were ever around the program. No matter who you were or what you did, Stig genuinely cared about every team member and was a role model for everybody.
On Sunday mornings after games, I always tried to be the first person in the building to ensure film was broken down and ready for coaches. Unfortunately for me, Stig would occasionally beat me in there. He would be sitting in his office by lamplight in the early morning, watching the entire game play-by-play from the previous day. This would prepare him for his meetings with coaches and players throughout the day and add to the piles of notes he was constantly taking and checking. He prioritized getting in early on Sunday mornings so he could have time to get work done before going to church with his wife, Laurie, and then heading back into the office for meetings after lunchtime.
Austin Sumner – SDSU’s starting quarterback from 2011-2014. Now, a sales representative for Arthrex/Conetic Solutions and the quarterbacks coach at Sioux Falls Jefferson.
I absolutely love Coach Stig. He wore the silliest clothes around the facility as most have probably heard. “Jerusalem cruises” with long white socks, big khaki shorts, an old Jacks football tee shirt from the ‘90s and a sweat-stained visor. Simply comical. One day after practice, we were walking back and he was wearing this old school SDSU flat bill, also sweat-stained. I told him before I leave school, I needed to get one of those hats from him. He took it off and handed it to me. I’ve moved five times in the last seven years and that old nasty hat is still in my closet. Never wore it but every time I see it, I think of Coach Stig and that day.
I took a visit to SDSU my junior year shortly after shoulder surgery on my throwing shoulder. My mom and I sat down on a ‘70’s Davenport in his old office in the HPER Center. It was a tiny little office, with stacks of paper and file folders covering his desk. I remember thinking, this office is a mess! We talked for 20 some minutes before he offered me a scholarship. I was completely blindsided by it because I was sitting there with my throwing arm in a sling thinking my chances of playing college ball were slim at that point. He overlooked that when many others didn’t. We then went to the basketball game and I fondly remember not watching a minute of it. I was in complete awe. I couldn’t believe that guy saw something in me, despite my surgery, to offer me the chance to fulfill my childhood dream of playing Division 1 football. The guy I sat down with that day is the same guy he is today. He’s simple, disciplined, old-school, original, honest, comfortable in his own skin…just, Stig.
Ryan McKnight – SDSU offensive lineman from 2006-2010. Now, a lecturer in the Ness School of Management and Economics and founder of the Jackrabbit Former Players Association.
My favorite story is when we had just given the program this big check from the Jackrabbit Former Players Association. My relationship with Stig has always been one of family, just like a lot of people. I wasn’t a huge name guy, I was a walk-on for three years and I got a scholarship my last year. When I got the (scholarship), I wasn’t even told. I just got a letter in the mail letting me know I was going to be on scholarship. Anyways, we got this big check, we raised a whole bunch of money and we have a bunch of alumni and we went to his office and he’s still got that same look on: socks-and-sandals with old Jackrabbit gear. I thought it was funny. He didn’t care about the money, he just asked about being a dad, asking how my wife was, how my kids were. It didn’t matter if you gave him $10 billion, he’d be more interested in how your family was and what he could do.
(McKnight on the time Stig yelled at him)
During spring ball going into my junior year, we are doing this drill. I was blocking down and (Casey) Bender was pulling down. Stig blows the whistle and starts screaming.
“Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Ryan, what are you doing?”
I told him, “blocking down.”
“Oh, is that what you are supposed to do?” Stig said.
“Yeah, it’s power.”
“Oh, well did you do it?”
“Yeah.” (Play resulted in seven yards from running back Kyle Minett).
“Okay, keep it up!”
I would hear “Holy Nutmeg” every once in a while, but he would never really yell. He was always a calm, level-headed, focused, mild-mannered individual.
J.D. Berreth – SDSU wide receiver from 1986-1989. Now, host of the Scoop on Sports radio show for KJIQ-AM Brookings.
It was the summer of ‘89, I was back in Minneapolis. I went out to the mailbox and found out I was ineligible. I didn’t pass enough credits so I had to scramble back to Brookings for summer school and for some reason, I had to take racquetball and tennis to get over the hump. Now to my surprise, a second-year defensive backs coach that I hadn’t really interacted with the last season was the instructor. His name was John Stiegelmeier.
So, Stig is my summer school tennis instructor showing me how to hit volleys and lobs and all this stuff. Ended up passing the two courses and I became eligible.
Fast-forward to fall camp. Dave Peterson (defensive back) lights me up on a seven-on-seven drill when there’s no pads or anything like that. I rip off the biggest (cursing) streak you can imagine as I’m going F-bomb city back and forth. Stig is less than two feet away from the two of us. I get back to the huddle and Mike Busch (quarterback at the time), looks back at me and says, “You know, he’s a Christian man.” I go “Oh, God.” I went up and apologized and of course he looks right at me and says, “Don’t worry, he’s forgiven you too.”
Kyle Minett – SDSU running back from 2007-2010. Now, manager for Kibble Equipment in Marshall, Minnesota.
I don't know if he still does this or not, but Stig rode his moped around campus and everything. He kind of got all of us into mopeds as well. When I got to school there, he was riding his moped around, and within a couple of years, like half the team had mopeds. We were like our little “Hell's Angels” gang riding around and that was in a time where we didn't have the facilities on campus, so we’d go to like the Fifth Street Gym for our practices and walkthroughs the nights before our games. It’s funny looking back on that now.
(Minett on Stig yelling at him)
Stig never yelled at me directly, but I was around when he would yell at the group and say “Holy Nutmeg” and throw his hands up in the air. It was pretty rare for him to get loud. His calm demeanor carried over into the locker room and when he did raise his voice or get pointed, you could just tell it was all passion and everything that went into it.
We had nicknames for everything. The practice fields were the gravel pits. The (old) locker room was the bomb shelter. We had our meetings in the double-wide trailers behind the locker rooms. I mean honestly, that was the cool thing about our group. We were there to play football and get the most out of it. It didn’t matter it we were practicing in an elementary school or meeting in the trailers, we were there to play football. For me, it was a great period of my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Jake Wieneke - SDSU wide receiver from 2014-2017. Now, a free agent wide receiver in the Canadian Football League (previous team was the Montreal Alouettes) and a physical education teacher in his hometown during the offseason.
First thing I tell people is that he's different than any coach that I've ever been around or even could possibly imagine. He's truly consistent and true to who he is, no matter what. I mean, he's a man of God and he's outspoken about it. He's not going force it on anyone, but he's always going invite you because he is always going to show love and he's always going to pour into people. Whereas I think a lot of people who have similar beliefs and values and different things, it's easy to just let football be the main focus, but for him it never was like that. He was always there to shape us and mold us and turn us back to what's most important. For him, it was his relationship with Jesus and he shared that with us and even just seeing that, it's like man, I want to be like that. I want to be true to that no matter what I do, even though football—yeah, it's important, we’re going to do everything we can to win games and to get better every single day—but he never turned the focus off what was most important. He always remembers his mission, going into every single day, every single meeting, every practice, every game, and every season.
I came to Brookings for the Holy Cross playoff game. I went to say “hi” to Stig and say “hi” to some of the other coaches. Stig sat with me for two hours and just talked about life, like he just wanted to hear about different things and he wanted to hear about the family. He wanted to just talk about what God was doing in my life. He just wanted to hear me and just let me in and listen. That marked me in a different way because I mean I had some conversations like that with him in college as a player, but there I was just sitting down with him as a grown man, and he’s a mentor of mine. So for him to take that time out of his busy schedule —I had nothing to do all day, I had all the time in the world—and he took it and spent that time with me. I think that's just something powerful about him.
*Shoutout to Jake, who drove overnight back to Minnesota following the National Championship so he could make it to school in time Monday morning.
Quotable
“There is not many like Coach Stig—he stays true to himself, he did it the right way, practices what he preaches and lives by it. He IS South Dakota State University, and it didn’t matter whether you played football for him or not, Coach Stig built relationships with everybody that he crossed paths with. He’s one of one.” - Jordan Brown, SDSU cornerback between 2014-2018. Now, an NFL veteran.
“I always appreciated John’s servant leadership style in our department and towards the football program. It was never about his success, he truly led without ego. Winning is certainly an important measurement of success in college athletics, and the football program produced plenty of wins over the years. But when you hear former players and former coaches speak about their positive experience at SDSU, it is easy to see that John’s impact extended far beyond winning football games.” - Aaron Johnston, SDSU women’s basketball coach.
“I would just start hunting again and dust off those golf clubs because he’s actually pretty good. I mean, he never plays but during those fundraiser deals he plays pretty well. It’s kind of surprising. He wouldn’t brag about it or anything but he just kind of picks it up fairly easy. I’m not saying he’s a scratch golfer or anything like that but he definitely doesn’t embarrass himself.” - Mike Daly, SDSU’s head coach between 1991-1996, on retirement advice for Stig.
“In my football career, I’m most proud of a couple things: being a team captain for his program three times and handing him the game ball after his 100th win. I am so grateful to have spent 4.5 years being mentored by him. He’s had an incredible impact on my life. I am forever indebted to him.” - Austin Sumner, SDSU’s starting quarterback from 2011-2014.
Phil Barrios – SDSU linebackers/special teams coach from 1998-2001. Now, retired.
Man, where do I start. Stig was a great mentor for me on my coaching journey. He recruited me to become a graduate assistant back when I was the head coach at Bonesteel-Fairfax High School in South Dakota. So my family and I decided to make the move to Brookings in 1992 to do the GA thing. Stig was the defensive coordinator at the time. I was a defensive GA and was responsible for helping coach either the inside or outside linebackers. One of the things I remember most about him as a DC was how much thought he put into developing a game plan. As a defensive staff, Stig, Trent Baalke, Greg Etter, Gregg Horner and myself would stay at the HPER until late at night during the week. As a GA, I was mostly in “listening mode,” learning my way as a college coach, taking grad classes and teaching in the HPER department (PE 100 courses). But Stig always made you feel like you were more than just a GA. The way he treated me/us, he knew the struggles of a GA, especially one with a family, and wanted to make us feel a part of the coaching staff and that he appreciated our input also (whenever we had some) and the work/schedule that we had. I always appreciated Stig for that. When I took a coaching job in Missouri, Stig and Laurie even came down and visited us. They genuinely cared about us as a family and our journey. We really appreciated them doing this.
I had coached at Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minnesota. When Stig became the head coach at SDSU, he gave me and my family an opportunity to come to SDSU to become a full-time assistant coach. I spent the next 4.5 years on his first staff. Those were some great days working for him and being at SDSU.
He was a great mentor as I was still a young coach learning my way, raising a family and his advice along the way was helpful not just as a coach, but as a husband and a father. I remember the day we sat in his office when I told him I was getting out of coaching to spend more time with my family. It was very emotional for me as Stig had become a big man in my life along with my dad, my father-in-law and a man by the name of Ron Barthel.
I am proud to call Stig a friend and mentor. He was very instrumental in what path our family has taken over the years and all of us (wife and kids) can honestly say we are happy we have taken it.
Terry Vandrovec - Argus Leader reporter who covered SDSU athletics between 2006-2015. Now, lead marketing specialist for the Sanford Sports Complex.
If I were to sum it up, the thing that stands out about Stig is that moment where you realize he sees you as a person. He’s in this unique position within the region because of his job. He’s this authority figure, almost like a local celebrity, but he cuts through that by the way he talks to people. In my specific instance—as a journalist—I am supposed to be objective and a lot of folks at that level can be standoffish or they believe you have to be almost like adversaries. He went beyond that in a way that I was almost taken aback by. Right away, when I was working in Fargo, my small interactions with him were meaningful. I think the way I would describe it is he was always thoughtful, never really used cliches but if he did, it was his own cliche.
When I started at the Argus, that’s when I really started to get to know him. My time covering the program was really kind of marked by the challenges that my own family went through. I would miss big chunks of the season and Stig would reach out himself to check in and see how things were going. It was something he just didn’t have to do but he would do it anyways, just asking to see if me and my family were doing ok. It was certainly unique. It was something that I really appreciated and I know my family really appreciated. To this day, they really gravitate towards the program and are always asking to go to games. They want to be involved and around it and I think that really is because of who Stig is as a person.
Kyle Sheehan – SDSU tight end/fullback/defensive end from 2006-2010. Now, a contributor to Jacks Illustrated and a medical salesman in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
It was 2019 and the weekend that College GameDay came to SDSU. I hadn’t been back on campus since 2015 when they were transitioning the stadium. I’m driving up from Texas which is pretty much a straight shot up I-29. It was nice to have my car and go around campus and see all expansion. I made my way over to the Dykhouse, I got a visitor pass and I’m just kind of wandering around. I went up to the offices just to say “hi”—I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way or anything like that. I run into Stig right when I get up there and he brings me into his office and we start talking. Mind you this was right after he got out of an interview with Tom Rinaldi. He’s asking me about my trip, where I stopped, what I ate, and what I am doing for work. He remembered I was in sales, of course. It didn’t surprise me but I don’t know how he remembers that kind of stuff with everything going on.
Anyways, he’s offering me something to drink and we start walking around and seeing all the facilities. We’re checking out the practice field and the new stadium. He goes, “Kyle, you’d be shocked about how we practice know. It’s far different than when you were here. Isn’t it wild that we practice on our game show all the time?” He’s laughing and goes, “Yeah, Zach Zenner doesn’t think that’s the greatest thing but, you know, it sure is a blessing.”
He gave me 45 minutes on a Thursday before the biggest game in program history. It’s just wild to me. That really doesn’t happen at other places. I didn’t ask for it, I was really just trying to be a fly on the wall to see how things have changed.
(Sheehan on the first time he met Coach Stig)
I went to Fairmont High School in Minnesota and every year, we would go to team camp at SDSU. I’m originally from Georgia and had moved to Minnesota during the latter part of high school. When we get to (SDSU), I’m like, “Is this even DI?” I met Coach Stig and he doesn’t exactly scream football, if you know what I mean. He was an intellect and very measured in how he spoke, and he’s wearing a bucket fishing hat, sunglasses, socks-and-sandals. I’m like, “This is interesting.” He was almost a caricature of what a football coach was but obviously he’s anything but that, especially when you get him talking ball.
Sheehan ended up going to Purdue his first year but transferred to SDSU later on.
Zach Zenner - SDSU running back from 2011-2014. Now, an NFL agent.
The one story that I remember that really sticks out is when we were in training camp my redshirt freshman year. Kyle Sheehan, who had been on the team forever, was asking the campus nutritionist a lot of questions because he was very interested in that topic. The fourth question he asked her was “if you should eat or drink your fruit.” Stig thought he was either messing around or trying to kill time so he goes, “Come on now guys, come on now. Ask serious questions.” The nutritionist stops (Stig) and goes “No, no. That’s a really good question.” His face got a little red, he took a step back and let her have the floor again. He just had no idea that (smoothies, basically) was even a topic that could be discussed.
(Zenner on Stig’s “cursing”)
I’ve never heard him cuss but I’ve heard him say, “excuse my French but that is bull crap.”
(Zenner on Stig’s joke telling)
I never heard him tell a single joke.
(Zenner on how he describes Stig to people who don’t know him)
If someone were to ask me, I would say he was a South Dakota kid who has been loyal to South Dakota State basically his whole life and worked his butt off to form a good staff and that he believes in student-athletes and developing young men into good people and good members of the community. Oh, and he rides around this rinky-dink moped that he's had for 20 years and doesn't cuss. He says “Holy Nutmeg” and stuff.
Jesse Currier - various coaching roles at SDSU between 2008-2016. Now, co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Coach Stig is the most genuine and consistent person that I have ever met. He does the same thing day after day. He’s got his jar of bran that he’s putting on every food imaginable. He’s at the office every morning at 5:30 a.m. or whatever working out and then he’s in there with his candles on. He just had the same regime day after day.
I remember the first recruiting trip that I took with him and as young coach, you are expecting all these great speeches and everything. He was far from that. He was just completely himself the whole time and it wasn’t like a “flip the switch” when he goes to talk to parents and recruits and then he’s a completely different person on campus. He’s exactly the same person in the living room as he is in the locker room. I think that consistency allowed him to connect with people that were from very different backgrounds.
Coach Stig gave me my coaching start almost exactly the same way he was given his. It was a blessing for me to experience (Coach Stig) and get my first coaching job from someone like him. I was planning on being a high school teacher and I was in the coaching football class and he kind of opened it up so that if you wanted to learn football, you could go talk to him. I did that my last semester as an undergrad and then took a GA spot and basically volunteered. I then moved up the coaching ladder from there. That part was very cool and I was obviously very fortunate to be in the right spot at the right time.
(Currier on Stig’s love for sunflower seeds)
Stig loves seeds. We were on a recruiting trip and he’s chewing on seeds the whole way. Every time we stop to talk to a recruit, he’ll check to make sure he doesn’t have seeds in his teeth and then use his toothbrush and mouthwash to freshen up. His car was something else—just littered with seeds.
He ate seeds in the office too. He liked the regular kind, no flavoring or anything like that. He didn’t like them overly salty because the super salty ones would just make his mouth raw and he couldn’t eat them all day long like he wanted to. In his office, he had the same seed cup for years. He would just dump it out when it got full and then he would just use the same one. The inside of that cup was just plastered with a sort of seed film.
(Currier on Stig’s postulates and sayings)
Stig is a math guy and he had a postulate for all these meaningful life experiences for him and the program. A postulate is like a proof of a certain thing. He had a Mike Barber postulate, an Adam Timmerman postulate, a Bill Belichick postulate, a San Antonio postulate and a Zach Zenner postulate (among many others). Mike Barber was this low scholarship guy and he talked to the team about how the summers are for building the football team and not for trying to make as much money as you possibly can. Because if you’re outside in the sun all summer working construction or whatever, you’re going to make a lot more money, but you’re not going to be physically where you need to be in the fall. I’ll never forget when I met the real life Mike Barber in person at an alumni golfing event. I almost couldn’t believe it was a real person for how often Stig referenced the “Mike Barber postulate.”
The Adam Timmerman postulate was if a guy is injured you need to connect with them as much as you do the guys that are playing because those guys feel like how Timmerman felt when he got hurt as a junior. That came from when (Timmerman) almost didn’t come back for his senior year because he felt like he wasn’t a part of the team anymore.
He saw coaching as a math problem and there was a best solution to everything. That had a big influence on my own coaching.
Another thing that he talked about all the time was this thing called a “VeraSun decision.” VeraSun was a company that blew up as a startup and made a ton of money. The story that Stig knows is that they made one very bad decision and it basically ruined everything. So when he would say “this is a VeraSun decision” that meant there was like a lot of pressure on the decision and it was his way of saying “don’t screw this up.”
(Currier on Stig’s memory)
We drove out to Colorado for a recruiting trip (*note, that’s a lot of seeds) and his son was living out there so we stopped to have breakfast with him and his girlfriend. One thing that really stuck out to me was this waitress who was friends with (his son). She was taking our order and Stig was just being polite, making some conversation. Once she found that Stig was related to (his son), the conversation kind of carried on. It seemed kind of like small talk to me but when we were leaving, Stig said something like “Good luck with…” —whatever it was, I don’t remember the exact little detail. But Stig did remember and the waitress kind of froze and was almost taken aback. She was shocked by his level of attentiveness and that he actually listened to what she was saying. When we got back to the car, I asked him about it. He said that it wasn’t natural for him (to be attentive and a good listener) but it was something that he had continually worked on. You could see that in all his conversations that he really tried to listen and connect with people. He obviously has a good memory but it was clear to me that his listening was something that he truly worked hard at. It’s one of the biggest things that I learned from him because you can really see the impact of it on people. It made people feel special. He knew because of his role that those things could make a huge impact on people but he also never developed an ego that a lot of people get when they are in a similar position that he is. It truly is a special thing to understand your role that well but also not have an ego about it. It’s what made Stig great.
I want to thank everyone for taking the time to share their stories about Stig. My interactions with him were limited but after listening to these stories, one thing has become clear: Stig was special and there will truly never be another coach like him. I think I can speak for everyone when saying this: Coach Stig’s impact on this program, university, community and state will be felt for generations to come.