Dan Benish, a former NFL defensive lineman, spoke Tuesday to the Hendersonville Rotary Club about his football career and his current job in the field of identity protection.
Dan Benish towered over the room as he reached the podium at The Chariot on Tuesday afternoon. Benish, a former NFL defensive lineman, spoke to the Hendersonville Rotary Club about his football career and his current job in the field of identity protection.
Benish grew up in Ohio, where he played high school football. His dad wanted him to go to Penn State. His mom wanted him to go to Ohio State.
He was leaning towards Ohio State when fate intervened. On a snowy weekend, he was set up for a visit with Ohio State, but longtime Buckeye head coach Woody Hayes had just been fired after punching a Clemson University player during the 1978 Gator Bowl.
The Buckeyes didn't know that Benish was coming, since Hayes had been handling his recruiting. There was no ticket for Benish. So Benish picked up the phone and made contact with coach Danny Ford at Clemson.
Not long after that, he signed to play for the Tigers.
"Football was an outlet for me," he told the crowd.
Benish didn't grow up rich. He wasn't even sure he was going to be able to make it in football before he signed his letter to Clemson. He fought hard to get to that point, and Benish had to fight even harder once he got to Clemson.
He wasn't used to summers in the South, he said. In Ohio, the temperature might have hit in the '90s twice a year, but at Clemson, he worked through extreme dehydration in 100-degree temperatures to secure a spot on the Tigers' travel team. Benish was a defensive tackle behind All-American Jim Stuckey.
A year later, he was starting, and Clemson was on its way to a national championship.
Two years later, Benish was heading toward the NFL and was projected to be drafted in the second round. He fell victim to false rumors of a drug problem and eventually was undrafted. He signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Falcons.
He played six years in the NFL with the Falcons and the Washington Redskins. His career ended after the 1987 season, but not before the Redskins won the Super Bowl.
Benish is in elite company because fewer than 100 players have both a Super Bowl and collegiate national championship ring. "I'm very proud of that fact," he said.
After he retired from football, Benish had his identity stolen by a woman who bought a house, ran up credit cards and took advantage of elderly people, all while pretending to be his wife. After a long legal battle, Benish founded the company CORE ID Services to help protect people from identity theft.
"I thought his life story was interesting and how he turned it into a business," Rotary President-elect Cheryl Gudger-Thompson said.
Benish told his story with humor, which prompted laughter and head-shaking from his audience.
"I had a hard time keeping it short because the stories can go and on," he said. "It was a blast."
Reach Millwood at 828-694-7881 or at email@example.com.