Edward Reno Fullerton (April 7, 1931 – May 28, 2015) 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 ...

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 ...

. He was selected in the fourth round of the

1953 NFL Draft The 1953 National Football League Draft was held on January 22, 1953, at Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Selections made by the folded Dallas Texans were assigned to the new Baltimore Colts. This was the seventh year that the first ove ...

and played one season 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). He 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 ...

for the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

Playing career

Fullerton graduated from West View High School in Pittsburgh in 1949.Ed Fullerton Past Stats
, Database Football, retrieved January 25, 2009. He attended college at the University of Maryland where he played football from 1950 to 1951. In the 1952 Sugar Bowl, billed by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' as the second " game of the century", 3rd-ranked

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

faced "General"

Robert Neyland Robert Reese Neyland (; February 17, 1892 – March 28, 1962) was an American football player and coach and officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He served three stints as the head football coach at the Univ ...

's 1st-ranked

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity college athletics, intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in NCAA Division I, ...

. Fullerton scored the first

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

of the game by

rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...

ing into the

end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...

to cap a 56-yard drive. Soon after, Maryland quarterback

Jack Scarbath John Carl Scarbath (August 12, 1930December 6, 2020) was a professional American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fam ...

pitched to Fullerton who then threw a six-yard

pass Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to: Places *Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland * Pass, Poland, a village in Poland *Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits *Mountain pass, a lower place in a mountai ...

Bob Shemonski Bob "Shoo Shoo" Shemonski (c. 1933 – c. 2001) was an American football player. He played college football as an end and back for the Maryland Terrapins and was selected in the 1952 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. Biography A native of Archbald ...

for another touchdown. In the fourth quarter, Fullerton returned an

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

46 yards for another touchdown. Today, that pick-six is the second-longest return allowed by Tennessee in a

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

, the first-longest being by another Terrapin,

Curome Cox Curome Cox (born February 28, 1981, in New York City) is a former American football safety. He was signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2004. He played college football at Maryland. Cox has also been a member of the Denv ...

in the

2002 Peach Bowl The 2002 Peach Bowl featured the Tennessee Volunteers and the Maryland Terrapins. Game summary 1st half Maryland scored first on a 1-yard touchdown run from quarterback Scott McBrien giving Maryland a 7–0 lead. In the second quarter, Maryland ...

. In 1952, Fullerton rushed for a career-high of 107 yards against in-state rival

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

.Year-By-Year Results
(PDF), ''2007 Terrapin Football Record Book'', University of Maryland, 2007, retrieved 16 January 2009. He was selected in the fourth round of the

by the San Francisco 49ers (46th overall). Fullerton instead went on to play for the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

. He played one game in 1953, but compiled no statistics. After the NFL, he served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

as a lieutenant for two years in which he played and coached football at

Bolling Air Force Base Bolling Air Force Base or Bolling AFB was a United States Air Force base in Washington, D.C. In 2010, it was merged with Naval Support Facility Anacostia to form Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling. From its beginning, the installation has hosted elem ...

.Ed Fullerton To Join Mont
''

The Victoria Advocate ''The Victoria Advocate'' is a daily newspaper independently published in Victoria, Texas. It is the second-oldest paper in Texas and the oldest west of the Colorado River, dating back to May 8, 1846, following the Battle of Palo Alto during the ...

'', January 22, 1956. Upon his discharge from the Air Force in January 1956, he was hired at as an assistant coach his alma mater by

Tommy Mont Thomas Allison Mont (June 20, 1922 – January 1, 2012) was an American educator, university administrator, college football coach, and National Football League (NFL) player. He played quarterback for the Washington Redskins as a back-up behind S ...

. He served as an assistant coach there from February 1956 to 1958. As of 2001, he was living in his hometown of Pittsburgh. He died on May 28, 2015, in

McCandless, Pennsylvania McCandless is a township with home rule status in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,709 at the 2020 census. Though McCandless no longer operates under the First Class Township Code, it is classified as a first- ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fullerton, Ed 1931 births 2015 deaths Players of American football from Pittsburgh Maryland Terrapins football players American football halfbacks American football defensive backs Pittsburgh Steelers players Maryland Terrapins football coaches United States Air Force officers American military sports players