WR Dante Lavelli (NFL Hall of Fame)

[Buckskin86]

86 Dante Lavelli Class of 1975
Sunday, July 22, 2007

Born Feb. 23, 1923, in Hudson.

cantonrep.com

College career
Lavelli attended The Ohio State University, where the Browns' first coach Paul Brown was then coaching, but played just three games before turning professional due to a stint in the U.S. Infantry.

Dante Lavelli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[osugrad21]

RIP Dante....great read here.

CPD

Browns legend Dante Lavelli, 85, passes away

by Bob Dolgan/Special to the Plain Dealer Tuesday January 20, 2009, 11:11 PM

Associated PressDante Lavelli stand nest to his plaque outside of Cleveland Browns Stadium in 2002. The Hall of Fame wide receiver passed away Tuesday at age 85.
Dante Lavelli, who died Tuesday at age 85, was one of the greatest receivers the Browns ever had.
A member of the original Browns in 1946, Lavelli was a vital figure on the Cleveland club that formed a dynasty in the first 10 years of its existence, winning three NFL championships in the 1950s and four All-American Football Conference crowns in the 1940s.
Lavelli, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975, teamed up with quarterback Otto Graham, receiver Mac Speedie, fullback Marion Motley and kicker Lou Groza in an attack that revolutionized football offenses.
Lavelli died at Fairview Hospital after a long illness. He had been hospitalized recently with congestive heart failure and had been treated for a bladder and kidney infection.
Lavelli is survived by his wife Joy, a son, two daughters and four grandchildren.
Lavelli's death leaves only three survivors of the original 1946 Browns. They are Gene Fekete, who started the first-ever Browns game at fullback, center Mike (Mo) Scarry and linebacker Lou Saban.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Cont...

 

[gemsweater]

RIP Glue Fingers

 

[cincibuck]

Lavelli, MacSpeedie, Marion Moteley, Chick Chighadie, Horace Gillem, Otto Graham, Lou Groza, Bill Willis, Gene Hickerson, Chuck Nowell, .... I don't have to look them up, their names are legends in my mind.

Twice my dad and I took the train from Dayton to see a Browns game and I was always in front of the tube on Sundays to watch the games. Fairmont Dragons on Friday nights, Buckeyes on Saturday and the Browns on Sunday. What a wonderful line up. Rest in Peace Dante, you were one of the great ones of the game, and thank you for serving this country.

 

[sflbuck]

Sad news indeed. Another one of America's greatest generation passing from the scene. My father knew Mr Lavelli when they were both students at OSU after WWII.

RIP

 

[Best Buckeye]

RIP mr Lavelli.
How many of you recognized this name from the article?
"Gene Fekete"

 

[LitlBuck]

Lavelli was not only one of the greatest football players of all time blow was also a truly great man. RIP Dante.

 

[Bucklion]

I had the pleasure of meeting him several times. He was always a gentleman, had a great sense of humor, was willing to talk to people, and represented our school with dignity and honor, though he was only there breifly. He served his country with honor, and then was one of the greatest football players of his era. He is one of the most underappreciated members of the HOF, but was always one of its greatest ambassadors.

RIP to a good man, a football legend, an honorable soldier, and a hero.

 

[BB73]

A few more items about Dante Lavelli.

His parents were from the same town, Manerva, Italy, a few miles from Florence. (Firenza to the Capo). They didn't really know each other, and then took the same ship to the U.S. without knowing it. They met while waiting in Grand Central Station for the train to Cleveland.

Dante visited Notre Dame, but decided he didn't want to play there when he learned that Eddie Prokopp, who would later play for the football NY Yankees, was a 5th teamer. He decided he'd have a better chance to play in Columbus.

His freshman year he roomed with Les Horvath and Don McCafferty. That trio ended up winning a Heisman Trophy, being a rookie head coach of a Colts team that won the Super Bowl, and making it the the NFL Hall Of Fame.

Dante wore #33 for the Buckeyes in 1942. He didn't start the opener against Fort Knox due to a 'charley horse', and also saw limited action the next week against Indiana. Late in the next home game against USC, he broke a bone in his leg when he was hit while going up for a pass. That ended his season, and since he went into the Army after that, those 3 games were his entire career at tOSU. In 1941, freshmen weren't eligible to play.

His Army duty was notable. He was in the 28th Division, nicknamed the 'Bloody Buckets Division". He was in the invasion of Normandy, marched into Paris, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, including Bastogne.

After the war, he was ready to sign to play baseball for the Detroit Tigers when he received a call learning about an opportunity to play for the newly formed Cleveland Browns.

The Browns won 4 straight AAFC titles from '46-'49, won the NFL title in 1950, the first year after the merger. The opener was against the Eagles, who had won the NFL Championship Games in the previous 2 years with a shutout each time. The Browns 35-10 win stunned the football world. Graham threw for 346 yards, including a 26-yard TD to Lavelli. After the game, Paul Brown said " "I think today we were the best football team I've ever seen". Eages head coach Greasy Neale said,[FONT=????] "Brown would have made a better basketball coach because all they do is put the ball in the air."[/FONT]

Brown used the rematch later that season to make a point to Neale, who was on the 1919 Cincinnati Reds World Series team, and is in the NFL Hall of Fame as a coach. The Browns won the November game in Cleveland by a score 13-7 without completing a pass. One throw to Lavelli was wiped out by a penalty, which ended his streak of consecutive games with a reception.

After losing NFL title games in '51-'52-'53, the Browns won the crown in both '54 and '55. Graham retired after the '55 season, and Lavelli retired the year after that.

Before his playing days ended, Dante owned a furniture and appliance business. His only association with coaching football was six years helping Paul Brown coach in the the NFL All-Star games in Chicago.

Congrats on a life well lived, Dante, and RIP.

 

[stowfan]

The Hudson High School football field is named in honor of Dante, has been for years.

 

[cincibuck]

The shoulder patch of Lavelli's unit, the 28th, is known as the Bucket of Blood.

He was one lucky dude to have survived the war as the division managed to get stuck in some of the bloodiest fighting on the Western Front in WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28th_Infantry_Division_(United_States))

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

The Browns won 4 straight AAFC titles from '46-'49, won the NFL title in 1950, the first year after the merger.
.
.
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After losing NFL title games in '51-'52-'53, the Browns won the crown in both '54 and '55.

The Browns played in league title games in their very first 10 years of existence, winning seven. Unreal.

RIP Dante.

 

[Buckskin86]

Always sure-handed, Lavelli never dropped his loyalty to Browns fans, either
by Bill Livingston/Plain Dealer Columnist
Wednesday January 21, 2009

Ray Matjasic/Plain Dealer file photo
Dante Lavelli displays his receiving skills with this reception of an Otto Graham pass on Oct. 12, 1947 against the L.A. Dons. Lavelli died Tuesday at Fairview Park at age 85.

Tony Dejak/Associated Press
Dante Lavelli never lost his affection for the Browns and the region he called home.

Plain Dealer file photo
The halcyon days of the Browns could be found in the smiles of (from left) Dante Lavelli, Otto Graham, Frank Gatski and Lou Groza following another victory in 1955.

CLEVELAND -- Dante Lavelli took one for the team for almost 33 years. When Art Modell took the team to Baltimore, Lavelli said what he thought about the move and the owner.

There were a half-dozen phone messages in my office mailbox after "Dais Day" in Baltimore in 1995, the official end of the original Browns in Cleveland. Each message bore the phone number for Lavelli's appliance store in Rocky River.

When I called back, a family member said to come on out. He wants to talk. I had no idea what to expect. Modell treated his players well. Some of the Browns I covered and respected most, like Brian Brennan, felt sorry for Modell, not angry at him.

While an employee went into a back room to fetch Lavelli, I rehearsed a little speech in defense of the harsh criticism I had directed at Modell. Lavelli emerged almost at a trot, smiling widely, then shaking hands vigorously. He said he had felt the same way in his heart about Modell for years. It had been eating him up.

Lavelli's 1942 Buckeyes won Ohio State's first national championship, but players did not receive championship rings -- there was a war on -- until Jim Tressel became coach in this decade and ordered them made. If it bothered Lavelli, he did not embarrass Ohio State by saying so. Lavelli was a child of the Great Depression. He was used to waiting. He had fought in World War II's Battle of the Bulge. He had coped with worse than an unadorned finger.

Always sure-handed, Lavelli never dropped his loyalty to Browns fans, either - Cleveland Sports Articles, Analysis & Commentary by Bill Livingston - cleveland.com

 

[Buckskin86]

Dante Lavelli remembered as great player, greater person
By Bill Lilley
Beacon Journal staff writer
Jan 21, 2009

HUDSON: Rich Merino figures he's far more qualified to be a judge of great spirits than he is to be a scout of great athletes.

Merino, proprietor of Merino's Beer & Wine store for more than six decades, knows there must be exceptions.

Like Dante Lavelli, the Browns great who died Tuesday at age 85 and who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1975.

Merino knew Lavelli before he even knew that the man, who would be his best friend for more than eight decades, was destined for greatness.

''We were both just little kids and we were playing football in the park on 303 and 91 [in Hudson],'' Merino said. ''We were using either a buckeye that fell off a tree or an old tennis ball for a football because we couldn't afford a real ball. We were all sons of Italian immigrants, and we just didn't have any money.

''Anyways, we were playing two-on-two. I was a lot faster and he was only about 6, two years younger. But it didn't matter because when we kicked off to start the game, Dante was so shifty he faked us both out and left us laying on the ground while he ran for a touchdown.

''I knew right then he was a great athlete. But, at 8 years old, I just didn't have any clue how great he was going to become or what he was destined to be.

''Later on, I thought he was going to be a major-league baseball player. I thought he was going to be the next Lou Gehrig. We didn't think about professional football back then.''

That was in 1929, months before the great stock market crash. The National Football League wasn't a decade old, and was a distant second to the college game in terms of popularity.

''As a freshman in high school, Dante already was a great athlete,'' Merino said. ''He was only 14, but he was already about 160 pounds.

''He played on a team in Peninsula in a men's baseball league, and he was the best player on the team with older men. He was a left-handed hitter and really could hit the ball. And he played a great first base.''

The hands that would later earn Lavelli the nickname ''Gluefingers'' weren't immediately evident.

''Dante had stubby hands,'' Merino said. ''Hell, my hands were a lot bigger.

''But he had incredibly strong hands. It must have been from the genes ? his father, Angelo, who lived to be 97, was a blacksmith and was very, very strong.

''When Dante touched a ball, he never dropped it. And you couldn't knock it away because his hands were so strong.''

Lavelli went on to star at Hudson High in football and basketball. Hudson did not have a baseball team.

Ohio.com - Dante Lavelli remembered as great player, greater person

 

[BB73]

dispatch.com

Rob Oller commentary: Lavelli made the best of what life tossed his way

The year was 1943, and Ohio State underclassman Dante Lavelli was pulling a back-in-the-day "Beanie" by bolting for greener pastures via the draft. In Europe.


Except after reaching those pastures, the receiver continued on to the woodlands, where in the Hurtgen Forest of Germany he learned a valuable lesson that would carry him through his Hall of Fame career with the Cleveland Browns.

As German World War II artillery pulverized the pine canopy that provided cover for members of the 28th Infantry Division in 1944, and as soldiers died around him in the build-up to the Battle of the Bulge, Lavelli, who died Tuesday in Cleveland at age 85, quickly came to distinguish between fields used for play and those used for more serious business. He was one of only a handful of soldiers to survive from his company.

By the time he returned to the United States in 1945, Lavelli never again would look at football as work to whine about.

"After what guys went through when looking down a loaded rifle barrel, compared to getting hit in the face (by a linebacker) ... he realized that football is a game. The other is life or death," said Edward Lavelli, who spoke of his father as an athlete who played for fun, but did so ferociously.

Cont'd ...