‘The King’ of C.R. Titans football

CEDAR RAPIDS - Tucked away in the bench area amidst his prodigious offensive lineman, it would be easy to overlook Michael Custer.

But ask any player or coach of the Cedar Rapids Titans who he is, and you'll hear two words, 'The King.”

The playful nickname from Cedar Rapids Coach Mark Stoute seems to have found an unlikely home with his assistant head coach.

'We used to call each other that when we were younger,” Custer said with a laugh. 'He started that and everybody just picked up on it. I'm humble. I like to be in the corner. In the back, in the dark but you can't do it all the time.”

Custer, 60, is also the special teams coordinator and O-line coach for Cedar Rapids (10-4), which hosts Billings (6-7) Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at the U.S. Cellular Center.

Four years in Cedar Rapids does not begin to scratch the surface of the enduring bond between Custer and Stoute. Their friendship and life on the gridiron dates back to the early 1980s as semipro football teammates in Connecticut.

'One of the big things in coaching is to have not only your friends, but people that you trust,” Stoute said. 'And you want to surround yourself and you want to surround your program with good people and people of character.”

Custer and Stoute made a final attempt at playing professionally with a workout for the New Jersey Generals of the USFL. Once the pads were hung up, Custer joined the coaching staff Southern Connecticut State University and Stoute joined as a volunteer assistant in 1988.

'Wherever he went, I went. Wherever I went, he went,” Custer said.

Southern Connecticut State and Connecticut high school football coaching opportunities eventually led to the Connecticut Coyotes of the Arena Football League in 1995, which was the product of a coaching connection made during the USFL workout.

Nearly every pro football coaching stop over the past 22 years and over a dozen franchises have featured Custer and Stoute on the same staff.

'It's just been a tremendous situation,” Custer said. 'We're friends before business partners, but we understand that business comes first and when you have that type of understanding, it just makes life a little easier. We have a good time at it, too.”

Both were track athletes by nature. Custer was a highly-ranked prep sprinter in New York before playing wide receiver for the University of Buffalo. In the offseason, he makes his home in Connecticut, where is a retired juvenile officer for the state.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com