Albert Lenart Gursky (born November 23, 1940), is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

who played college football for Penn State and professional football in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the New York Giants in 1963 and in the

Atlantic Coast Football League The Atlantic Coast Football League (ACFL) was a professional american football minor league that operated from 1962 to 1973. Until 1969, many of its franchises had working agreements with NFL and AFL teams to serve as farm clubs. The league paid ...

(ACFL) for the Atlantic City Senators in 1966.

Early years

Gursky was born in

West Reading, Pennsylvania West Reading is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,212 at the 2010 census. It contains a vibrant main street (Penn Avenue) and the large Reading Hospital and Medical Center. It was also the site of the V ...

, and attended

Governor Mifflin Senior High School Governor Mifflin Senior High School is the only high school in the Governor Mifflin School District. Named for the Revolutionary War major and first governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Mifflin, it is located in Shillington, Berks County, Pennsylv ...

Berks County, Pennsylvania Berks County ( Pennsylvania German: ''Barricks Kaundi'') is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 428,849. The county seat is Reading. The Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware Ri ...

. He then attended Penn State University where he played for the Nittany Lions football team from 1960 to 1962. He played defensive back for Penn State and was also a star of the Penn State baseball team.

Professional football

Gursky later played professional football in the NFL for the New York Giants in 1963. He appeared in two NFL games. After an injury to linebacker Tom Scott in the first quarter of the 1963 NFL Championship Game, Gursky entered the game as a substitute and was credited by teammate

Andy Robustelli Andrew Richard Robustelli (December 6, 1925 – May 31, 2011) was an American football defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams and the New York Giants. He played college football at Arnold College and was d ...

with having done "an outstanding job." He also played in the ACFL for the Atlantic City Senators in 1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gursky, Al 1940 births Living people American football linebackers New York Giants players Penn State Nittany Lions football players Players of American football from Reading, Pennsylvania