Dave Lapham (born June 24, 1952) is a former professional
football offensive lineman for the
National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals from 1974 to 1983 and the
United States Football League's New Jersey Generals
The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing ...
(1984–1985). During his career, he played all five line positions and was a key player on the 1981 Bengals squad that won the
AFC championship, but ultimately lost
Super Bowl XVI to the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
. He has served as the Bengals radio color commentator for over 30 seasons, is also a local Bengals TV analyst and radio host, and is a
Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...
football analyst for
Fox Sports Network
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
.
Early life
Lapham attended
Wakefield Memorial High School
Wakefield Memorial High School is a public school located in Wakefield, Massachusetts, United States.
As of the 2007-08 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,006 students and 83 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teac ...
in
Wakefield, Massachusetts
Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offer ...
, where he was a three-year letterman and captain in basketball and football and a four-year letterman and captain in track. He is a member of the school's hall of fame.
He then attended
Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications. At Syracuse, he
lettered
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
in three seasons and was a team captain. He played in the 1973
East–West Shrine Game, the North-South Game, the Senior Bowl and the Hula Bowl.
Professional career
Lapham was selected by the Bengals in the third round of the 1974 draft. He played with them until 1984, when he signed a 10-year guaranteed personal services contract with
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
, the majority owner of the
New Jersey Generals
The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing ...
. Lapham called it a "... business decision for my family."
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, ...
Jim LeClair
James Michael LeClair (October 30, 1950 – November 4, 2019) was an American football player and coach. He played professionally as a linebacker for 12 seasons, from 1972 to 1983, in the National Football League (NFL) with the Cincinnati Beng ...
, his Bengals teammate, also signed with the Generals.
Broadcasting career
After his retirement, in 1986 Lapham became a Bengals
broadcaster. He is the
color analyst on Bengals' radio broadcasts with partner
Dan Hoard handling play-by-play duties. The duo also hosts ''Bengals Weekly with
Zac Taylor
Zachary William Taylor (born May 10, 1983) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). Beginning his NFL career as an offensive assistant, he was the quarterbacks coach f ...
'', a recap and preview television show. He also works on
Fox Sports Net's broadcasts of
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...
games. Additionally, he appears as a panelist on ''Sports Rock'', a local sports commentary program.
Lapham also did work in 1988 with the
NFL on NBC
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 ma ...
, with at least one game on October 9, 1988 as the
Indianapolis Colts played the
Buffalo Bills, he did the color commentary with
Tom Hammond
Thomas Taylor Hammond (born May 10, 1944) is an American sportscaster. Hammond is primarily known for his work with NBC Sports from 1984 to the present. Hammond is one of the network's staple on-air presenters, along with Bob Costas and Dan Hic ...
doing the play by play.
Lapham has also worked with Cincinnati Bengals long-time play-by-play voices Brad Johansen, Phil Samp (the Bengals' original announcer) Ken Broo,
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
play-by-play announcer
Paul Keels
Paul Keels is the current play-by-play announcer for Ohio State University's football and men's basketball teams for WBNS Radio and the Ohio State Sports Network.
A native of Cincinnati, Keels began his broadcasting career in his hometown as a n ...
and
USC Trojans
The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...
' announcer Pete Arbogast on Bengal broadcasts during the course of his tenure as color man. He is famous for urging on Bengal players with exhortations such as "come on!" and "get him!", saying "uh-oh" when a sack or interception is in the works, and calling the players by their first names.
Personal life
Lapham resides in Cincinnati with his wife, Lynne. They have two grown children, Dave Jr. and Sarah. Lapham is active in the Cincinnati community and is president of the charitable foundation Charities M.D., which awards scholarships to students looking to pursue a career in healthcare.
His nephew, Richard Lapham, earned first-team accolades as a high schooler at
Souhegan High School
Souhegan Cooperative High School () is a Coalition of Essential Schools high school located in Amherst, New Hampshire, in the United States. Students from Amherst and Mont Vernon attend Souhegan for 9th through 12th grades. There are about 750 st ...
in
Amherst, New Hampshire
Amherst is a town in Hillsborough County in the state of New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,753 at the 2020 census. Amherst is home to Ponemah Bog Wildlife Sanctuary, Hodgman State Forest, the Joe English Reservation and Baboos ...
in 2005 and played
offensive tackle for
Boston College. His other nephew, Brian Lapham, was an All-Ivy League offensive lineman for
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 high ...
.
References
External links
Bengals on the AirBengals NationJust Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lapham, Dave
1952 births
Living people
People from Melrose, Massachusetts
People from Wakefield, Massachusetts
Sportspeople from Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Players of American football from Massachusetts
American football offensive linemen
Syracuse Orange football players
Cincinnati Bengals players
New Jersey Generals players
Cincinnati Bengals announcers
National Football League announcers
College football announcers