Blue White Illustrated

Polish name meaning crown. It honors the first Christian martyr, Stephen, who according to the Bible, received Jesus's "crowning glory." Leo and Cindy decided to spell it with an "e" rather than an "a," as is more common. "My parents wanted to change the name up a little bit, probably to avoid confusing me with [Uncle] Steve, which was probably a good idea because it still happens," Stefen said with a laugh. Heart was in Happy Valley The Bible is at the root of the Wis- niewski family's dedication to a Christian life, and that can be traced back to Leo and Steve's parents. So can the seemingly nomadic life that they and their siblings had growing up. Father Jim grew up on a small farm in East Windsor, Conn., and had no time to play football in high school. Somewhere along the way, before joining the Army near the end of the Korean War, he met Valia Battista, a full-blooded Italian and devout Catholic. They had three children by the time Jim used the G.I. Bill of Rights to study metal- lurgical engineering at Michigan Tech in the state's rural Upper Peninsula. Before Jim graduated in 1960, Leo had been born in Hancock, Mich., and named after an uncle who was a Catholic priest. The Wisniewskis went back to New England, with Jim going to work for General Electric, mov- ing often because of promotions to dif- ferent locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, upstate New York and Vermont. Along the way, they added an- other daughter and son, Steve, the " baby" of the family who was born in Rutland City, Vt. Then in 1971, Jim left GE for a position with the Heppenstall Steel Company in Pittsburgh. "I was in seventh grade, and we lived in Fox Chapel," Leo said. "I played football, and my future wife, Cindy, was a cheer- leader, the prettiest girl in school. But we didn't get married until we both had graduated from Penn State." Leo was highly recruited, and after his senior season in 1977 had narrowed his choices to Penn State, Michigan, Notre Dame and Stanford. Here's where the fate of his father's profession inter- vened. "I almost went to Stanford," Leo wrote in the 2006 book, "What It Means to Be a Nittany Lion," co-edited by this writer and Scott Brown. "I really thought my parents were going to be liv- ing in Pittsburgh, but by [then], my dad had taken a job in Houston. If I had known about the move before I commit- ted to Penn State things might have turned out differently. A huge part of the attraction for me at Penn State: my fam- ily was going to get to see all of my games." Steve wound up playing high school football in Houston and was heavily re- cruited, too, but his heart was back in Happy Valley. "I grew up rooting for Penn State," Steve wrote in his own chapter in the Nittany Lion book. "I remember when Leo was getting recruited and at that time I guess I was about an 11-year- old kid. Coach Paterno showed us around the locker room and the coaches' rooms. He took a ball cap out of his locker and put it on my head and he said, 'One of these days we're going to be recruiting you.' I think from that time forward I was hooked." A spiritual life Penn State turned out to be the catalyst for Leo and Steve, and eventually Stefen, to commit to a spiritual life. "Our mother and father were serious Catholics and took us to church every Sunday and holy day," Leo said. "So we had a deep awareness of God in the sense of a strong moral accountability to God. Steve, Stefen and I had a deep spiritual awakening at Penn State in a Christian community with brothers on the football team. During my time, it was connected to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes FLY, EAGLES, FLY Leo poses with wife Cindy and daughter Sarah at the Super Bowl in Minneapolis. The Eagles beat the Patriots to give the family its first Super Bowl ring. Photo courtesy of Wisniewski family

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