Calvin "Cal" Rossi (March 14, 1924 – January 23, 2013) was an

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 with ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

who played at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

College career

Rossi played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

as a halfback and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

. During his career, he rushed for 1,490 yards on 255 carries, which put him third on the all-time list. His career rushing average of 5.85 yards per carry was the highest in school history at the time. In addition, Rossi's 169 rushing yards against the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

in 1945 stood as a school record for 15 years. He ended his career with seven interceptions, including a team-leading three picks in 1947. Rossi was the second leading rusher in the nation before being transferred to the Naval Corps Supply School at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as part of his military service requirements. Rossi also played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

in college. He hit .456 in 1945 and won All-Coast honors and hit above .300 in two other seasons. He was the first football player to be selected twice in the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

. He was first drafted in the first round (ninth overall) of the

1946 NFL Draft The 1946 National Football League Draft was held on January 14, 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York. The selections were initially withheld from the public out of fear that the newly formed All-America Football Conference wou ...

by the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

. This is considered to be one of the biggest blunders in

history because Rossi was a junior, and was not draft eligible. He was again chosen in the first round of the

1947 NFL Draft The 1947 National Football League Draft was held on December 16, 1946, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City, New York. The National Football League in this draft made the first overall pick, a bonus pick determined by lottery. The Chicago B ...

by the Redskins, but he never played football professionally. Rossi was inducted into the UCLA Bruins Hall of Fame in 1997.

Coaching and teaching career

Rossi's first teaching and coaching assignment was at Visalia High School. Next, he moved to Redondo Beach, where he taught business classes and coached at Redondo Beach High School. It was there that he eventually became an advocate for teachers' rights through his work with the

California Teachers Association The California Teachers Association (CTA), initially established in 1863, is one of the largest and most powerful teachers' unions in the state with over 300,000 members and a high political profile in California politics. The teachers' union is ba ...

. In 1971, Rossi moved his family to

Los Altos Hills, California Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish for "The Heights") is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,489 at the 2020 census. The town is known for its affluence and expensive residential rea ...

, where he continued working for CTA, and his work focused on higher education. He retired from his position as Deputy Executive Director of CTA in 1984.

Death

In later life, Rossi suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died on January 23, 2013, at the age of 88. Team members of the Visalia Union High School football team Rossi coached in 1949 created a Cal Rossi Memorial Scholarship in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi, Cal American football running backs 2013 deaths Harvard University people UCLA Bruins football players 1924 births People from Los Altos Hills, California UCLA Bruins baseball players