After a seven-year career as a football coach at Colorado State University-Pueblo, Steve Sewell has retired following the team’s national championship season.
The running back coach and ex-Denver Bronco boasts more than 35 years of football knowledge. It’s this experience that will be absent from the future of ThunderWolf football as he retires from the program.
Sewell played running back for the University of Oklahoma Sooners for four seasons from 1981 to 1984. During his career, he rushed for a total of 1,178 yards and 10 touchdowns on 187 attempts averaging 6.3 yards a carry. A versatile back, Sewell also hauled in 33 receptions for 560 yards and 4 touchdowns as a Sooner.
“I’ve always been a team player,” Sewell said.
Following his senior season at OU, Sewell opted to enter the NFL Draft. Taken by the Denver Broncos, he was the 26th player selected in the first round of the 1985 NFL Draft.
Sewell played for seven seasons with the Broncos, retiring at the age of 28.
He finished his career with 917 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. However, he did more damage receiving, as he totaled 187 receptions for 2,354 yards.
Following his football career, Sewell focused his efforts on being a father and coaching.
Since the rebirth of the CSU-Pueblo football program in 2008, Sewell has helped lead the Pack to four straight conference championships, four playoff appearances and a trip to Kansas City for the NCAA Division II National Championship.
“We’re coaching football,” Sewell said in 2008, when he accepted the job. “We do everything as if we’re a Division I program. Our players are a little smaller and we take the bus instead of flying.”
Along with his contributions to the team as a whole, Sewell is also responsible for a number of exceptional running backs that have come to success through his leadership and guidance.
From classic names like All-American running back Jesse Lewis and the 2010 RMAC Freshman Offensive Player of the Year, J.B. Mathews; to the more recent names like the single-season rushing yards record-holder Cameron McDondle, it seems running backs under his coaching improve tremendously.
Sewell plans to stay home and be a father to his children and be there to watch and support their sporting events.
“He’s definitely going to be missed,” said senior wide receiver Jarred Radebaugh. “It’s going to be weird without him around. He was family to everyone.”
“He was the coach that everybody liked and you could trust him with anything. He cared about you,” he said.
Redebaugh is one of many players who have played their entire career under Sewell’s coaching.
Sewell’s son Samuel will succeed him as the Pack’s new tight ends and running backs coach, quite literally walking in his father’s footsteps and stepping into his old office.
Sam Sewell returns to CSU-Pueblo after leaving the program in 2012 to help coach at McKendree College with former ThunderWolf offensive coordinator Mike Babcock.
