Lu Gambino

Lucien Anthony "Lu" Gambino (September 21, 1923 – July 16, 2003) was an American football running back. He played college football for Indiana University, and after military service in the Second World War, the University of Maryland. While playing for Maryland, he set the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) season scoring high for 1947 with 16 touchdowns and 96 points and was named the 1948 Gator Bowl most valuable player. Gambino played professional football for two years with the Baltimore Colts in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), an early competitor of the National Football League (NFL).

Biography Early life

Gambino was born in Berwyn, Illinois, on September 21, 1923. He attended J.S. Morton High School in Cicero, Illinois, where he was a football and track & field standout. At Indiana, Gambino played alongside consensus All-America back, and future Colts teammate, Billy Hillenbrand. Shortly thereafter, Gambino dropped out of school to join the United States Army Air Forces and serve during the Second World War.

College career

Gambino was selected in the 1945 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears in the 26th round as the 271st overall pick. The following year, head coach Jim Tatum was hired, and he engineered a reversal of the team's fortunes. In the fifth meeting against rival West Virginia, Gambino scored three touchdowns to help Maryland take away its first victory of the series, 27–0. He also scored three touchdowns against Delaware and Duquesne, and two against Vanderbilt where he also passed for a third. He was also Maryland's season kickoff return leader, and returned seven kicks for 174 yards, an average of 24.85 yards.

Maryland finished the regular season 7–2–1 and secured the school's first-ever bowl game appearance. In the 1948 Gator Bowl against Georgia, he was honored as the Most Valuable Player. During the 20–20 tie, Gambino rushed to score all three of the Terrapins' touchdowns on one-, 24-, and 35-yard runs. In 1992, for his achievement as the bowl game's "first superb running back", Gambino was inducted into the Gator Bowl Hall of Fame.

At season's end, he was named a first-team All-Southern Conference player, an All-America Catholic player, and an Associated Press honorable mention All-American. The Touchdown Club awarded Gambino the Arch McDonald Trophy as the best player in the Washington, D.C. area.

Prior to the start of the 1948 season, the Southern Conference ruled that his college eligibility was exhausted and that he would be unable to play another year of college football. Gambino had briefly attended the University of Indiana during the war and saw some minimal game action as "not much more than a walk-on, but was charged a full year of eligibility for his efforts. Gambino called the decision "crooked" and asserted that the standing rules did not count returning veterans' pre-war playing career against their eligibility. but it failed to garner support from the two-thirds of the member schools required to call such a meeting. Gambino's college career was thus brought to an immediate end.

Professional career

As the issue of his college eligibility was playing out, Gambino was being courted by several professional football teams. The Chicago Bears of the NFL, which had drafted him during the war, still had a strong interest in him, as did the Baltimore Colts of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), who saw the Maryland star as a potential gate attraction. At the time, Gambino was one of four Colts players who were bald. The Baltimore Sun published an article that explored the unusual occurrence and concluded that it had "nothing to do with wearing a helmet." In When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore, author William Gildea described Gambino: "In street clothes he looked like Robert Mitchum—wide-brimmed hat, long overcoat, baggy but creased trousers, a cigarette between his fingers, a craggy smile. Yesteryear's running back." He was regarded as having been to some extent a victim of the merger between the All-America Football Conference and the NFL, which resulted in the termination of four clubs and the associated influx of 128 free agent players into the professional football market.

In the winter, Gambino had knee surgery to correct a bone spur. He was then picked up by the New York Giants and placed on the reserve list in July 1951. His professional playing career, however, was ultimately cut short by his knee. He became a successful salesman and then a regional sales manager for a national whiskey company. Gambino was 79 years old.