Dante Lavelli

Dante Bert Joseph Lavelli (February 23, 1923 – January 20, 2009), nicknamed "Gluefingers", was an American professional football end who played for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and the National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1956. Starring alongside quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley, kicker Lou Groza and fellow receiver Mac Speedie, Lavelli was an integral part of a Browns team that won seven championships during his 11-season career. Lavelli was known for his sure hands and improvisations on the field. He was also renowned for making catches in critical situations, earning the nickname "Mr. Clutch". Browns head coach Paul Brown once said of him: "Lavelli had one of the strongest pairs of hands I've ever seen, when he went up for a pass with a defender, you could almost always count on him coming back down with the ball."

Lavelli grew up in Hudson, Ohio and played football, baseball and basketball at his local high school. After graduating, he enrolled at Ohio State University, where he played only a handful of games before he was drafted for service in the U.S. Army during World War II. Returning in 1945 after serving in Europe, he joined the Browns in the team's first-ever season in the AAFC. Helped by Lavelli's play, the Browns won each of the AAFC's championships before the league dissolved in 1949 and the team was absorbed by the NFL. Cleveland continued to succeed in the NFL, winning championships in 1950, 1954 and 1955. Lavelli, who helped found the National Football League Players Association toward the end of his career, retired after the 1956 season.

After retiring from football, Lavelli held a variety of coaching and scouting jobs and was active in NFL alumni affairs. He also ran a furniture store in Rocky River, Ohio. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1975. He died in a Cleveland hospital in 2009.

Lavelli was born and grew up in Hudson, Ohio, a small town in the northeastern part of the state. Both of his parents were Italian immigrants. His father Angelo Lavelli was a blacksmith who made shoes for horses on nearby farms. As a child, he practiced catching by throwing baseballs against walls and trying to catch them when they bounced back. He liked to have friends throw ping-pong balls at him to see if he could catch them.

Lavelli was a standout as a running back at Hudson High School and developed a reliable set of hands. Lavelli's Hudson High Explorers football team had three undefeated seasons and won three county championships. He also played baseball and basketball in high school.

Notre Dame offered Lavelli a scholarship, and he committed to attend the school. After he had a chance encounter with Eddie Prokop, however, an able running back who was a fifth-string player for Notre Dame, Lavelli was convinced to look elsewhere. "If Eddie Prokop were a fifth-string player, I was not one to sit on anyone's bench," he later said. Lavelli enrolled at Ohio State University in 1941 after learning that Paul Brown was appointed the football team's new head coach. Brown had developed a sterling reputation as the high school coach at Massillon Washington High School in Massillon, Ohio, losing only eight games in nine years there. Lavelli's catching ability had made him a star infielder in high school, and the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball recruited him to play second base in the low minor leagues. He refused the invitation, opting to concentrate on football.

On arrival at Ohio State, Lavelli roomed with Les Horvath and Don McCafferty and played on the freshman team under coach Trevor Rees. Brown switched Lavelli to end (the position is now called wide receiver). His playing time with the football team was limited, however, due to injury. He became a first-string end as a sophomore in 1942, but was ailing from a charley horse in his thigh and sat out the first game of the season against a Fort Knox military team. He had recovered by the third game of the season and started in a game against Southern California. Lavelli was hit in the knee while grabbing for a pass near the end of the game, however, and broke a bone. He was sidelined for the rest of the season. The Buckeyes won the college football national championship that year.

After the 1942 season, Lavelli was drafted by the U.S. Army as American involvement in World War II intensified. After basic training and a number of other specialized courses on land-sea assaults, he was sent with the 28th Infantry Division to fight in the European Theatre of World War II. There his division landed on Omaha Beach, part of the Allied invasion of Germany-occupied France in 1944. He was involved with American forces in Germany's Battle of the Bulge offensive and in the Siege of Bastogne later the same year. One in five members of his division was killed in battle.