ONU Athletics celebrates Black History Month: Stacey Hairston

February 22, 2021

Stacey Hairston

Stacey Hairston represented Ohio Northern in one form or another for 23 years as a player and a coach.

He was a four-year starter at wide receiver and cornerback from 1985-88. He was named First Team All-Ohio Athletic Conference at receiver as a junior in 1987.

While at ONU, Hairston was also a member of ONU's Track and Field and Swimming and Diving teams.

He won the 1988 OAC Indoor Championship in the triple jump and the 1989 Indoor crown in the 55-meter dash.

His 100-meter time of 10.72 seconds currently ranks him the fifth-fastest runner in ONU history.

After graduation, Hairston enjoyed a three-year career as a defensive back with the Saskatchewan Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League. He started every game for the Rough Riders for three years, earning a spot on the CFL Western All-Star team.

Stacey then left for the NFL and a three-year stint with the Cleveland Browns. He earned special teams honors on four separate occasions and earned Defensive Player of the Game honors once.

In 1994, he was an integral part of the NFL's top-ranked defense.

Hairston was inducted into the ONU Hall of Fame in 2000.

He served as an assistant football coach for 12 seasons and was the interim head coach for the Polar Bears in 2003.

He was also the head women's golf coach at Ohio Northern from 2003-09 and is still the program's all-time winningist coach with a career mark of 436-165-3.

Hairston guided the Polar Bear women to their only NCAA Tournament appearance in 2007.

The Columbus, Ohio, native left ONU to join the coaching staff for the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos in 2009-10 and was defensive coordinator for Bluefield (W.Va.) in 2012 and Urbana in 2017.

Hairston was named the head football coach at Wilmington in 2013, a post he held for four seasons.