Otterbein University Athletics

The Otterbein football program had not finished a season over .500 for nine-consecutive years until the arrival of ferocious linebacker Don Snider and his 1974 freshman class, which immediately helped the Cards play to a 6-3 season behind 131 combined tackles from Snider (29 solo, 102 assisted).
 
Snider led the team in tackling three different years and would have made it all four had he not suffered a broken leg during his sophomore campaign, in which he had an incredible 98 tackles through five games. Included in that 1975 season was Snider making 35 tackles in a game at Ohio Wesleyan, which has stood as the school record ever since.
 
He bounced back even stronger as a junior, tackling everything in sight and picking off two passes as Otterbein went 6-2-1. Snider captured Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Defensive Player of the Year honors that season, a rare feat for an underclassman, and set the school's single-season record with 147 total stops (31 solo, 116 assisted). The number is even more impressive when you consider the team played a nine-game schedule instead of ten.
 
The momentum continued into 1977 as Otterbein, a rather small but quick, aggressive, and hard-hitting bunch, played to an impressive 8-1 record. Snider finished runner-up for OAC Defensive Player of the Year despite another five picks and high-tackling total, but was recognized on the national scene as a third-team All-American by the Associated Press. His senior-year tackling stats cannot be located to this day, but Snider’s average of another 100-plus would place him close to 500 for his career. To put that in perspective, the NCAA Division III all-time record is 531.
 
Don also played in the first college football game broadcasted on cable television, coming in 1977 when Otterbein defeated Marietta, 15-0. Columbus was serving as a test bed for Warner Cable, which was introducing a QUBE experiment for two-way cable TV. Congress even became involved to reach a compromise with ABC, which held exclusive rights to NCAA football at the time.
 
A seven-time OAC Player of the Week, Snider was team co-captain and all-conference his final two seasons. He helped Otterbein go a combined 24-12-1 during his four-year career before graduating with a liberal arts degree and becoming a self-employed businessman. In addition, he later captured a pair of national championships in the 40-year old division of the United States Handball Association.
 
Snider and his wife, Christine, now live in Granville and have two children, Haley and Nick, along with a pair of grandsons.