{{Short description|American football player (1900–1970)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college football player |name=Thomas Richard Sterck |image= |birth_date=June 20, 1900 |birth_place= |death_date=September 1970 (age 70) |death_place= |school=Washington & Jefferson Presidents |currentposition=Center |pastschools=Washington & Jefferson (1918–1920) |highlights= *All-American (1918) }} '''Thomas Richard Sterck''' (June 20, 1900 – September 1970) was an American football player.
Sterck was born in 1900 and attended Peabody High School in Pittsburgh. He was a star athlete at Peabody, participating in football and track. He set the school record in the discus.<ref name=PP18/>
At age 18, and with World War I underway, Sterck joined the students' army and was assigned to Washington & Jefferson College.<ref name=PP18>{{cite news|title=Wash. & Jeff. Secures Peabody High Star|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=September 15, 1918|page=18|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94791487/sterck/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> At Washington & Jefferson, he played at the center position, and was also tried as a guard, on the 1918 Washington & Jefferson Red and Black football team.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sterck May Play at Guard: Hutchinson Plans to Shift Peabody Boy and Make a Center Out of Ed Garbisch|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=October 8, 1918|page=20|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94791688/sterck/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> At the end of the 1918 season, he was selected by Tiny Maxwell as a first-team center on his 1918 College Football All-America Team.<ref>{{cite news|title=Three Pitt Players Placed on Maxwell's All-American Team|author=Robert Maxwell|newspaper=Evening Public Ledger|date=December 7, 1918|page=5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94793277/maxwelll-all-american/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Wash-Jeff Grid Prospects For Next Fall Very Bright|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=July 6, 1919|page=30|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94792467/sterck/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Sterck missed the 1919 football season with a broken leg.<ref>{{cite news|title=W.-J. Secures Promising Prep Grid Candidates|newspaper=The Gazette Times|location=Pittsburgh|date=September 5, 1920|page=19|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94792113/w-j-secures/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He returned to the football team in 1920 and also played on the Washington & Jefferson basketball team.<ref>Pandora (Washington & Jefferson yearbook), 1922, p. 80.</ref>
Sterck later worked in the advertising business.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mrs. Sterck To Sue Ex-Gridiron Star: Pittsburgh Girl Reported Ready to Seek Divorce|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=May 6, 1981|page=2|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94792804/sterck/|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sterck, Thomas}} Category:1900 births Category:1970 deaths Category:Washington & Jefferson Presidents football players Category:American football centers Category:Players of American football from Pittsburgh Category:20th-century American sportsmen