Lance Cameron Gunn (born January 9, 1970) 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 with ...

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 ...

who played 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) and

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

Early years

Gunn grew up in an east suburb of

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. He attended North Shore High School in

Cloverleaf, Texas Cloverleaf is a census-designated place (CDP) in east central Harris County, Texas, United States. The population was 24,100 at the 2020 census. History Cloverleaf originated as a stop on the Beaumont, Sour Lake, and Western Railway. A 1936 coun ...

, and played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

there.

College career

Gunn 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

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in Austin, Texas where he pledged the Epsilon Iota chapter of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

. He red-shirted his freshman year in 1988, then played three seasons for

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

David McWilliams (1989–91), and his senior season (1992) for head coach

John Mackovic John Mackovic (born October 1, 1943) is an American football coach. He is currently the head coach of the Italy national American football team, which was formed to compete in the EFAF European Championship. Previously, Mackovic served as the ...

. His sophomore season in 1990, Texas won the Southwest Conference and finished the regular season ranked No. 3. Gunn was a three-time All-SWC selection (1989–91) and named an All-American safety in 1992. College stats include 298 tackles (188 solo) and six QB sacks. He led the Longhorns in interceptions with five in 1991 and tied for the lead in blocked kicks in 1992. He graduated from UT in 1993 with a marketing degree.

Professional career

Gunn was drafted by

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

with the seventh pick of the seventh round of the

1993 NFL Draft The 1993 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 25–26, 1993, at the Marriot Ma ...

. He played one season for the Bengals, starting eight games. Gunn also played for the

Frankfurt Galaxy Two American football franchises have been referred to as the Frankfurt Galaxy: * Frankfurt Galaxy (NFL Europe), active in NFL Europe between 1991 and 2007 * Frankfurt Galaxy (ELF) The Frankfurt Galaxy is an American football team in Frankfurt, ...

in the

league. His football career ended in the spring of 1997 after donating a kidney to his ailing father.

References

External links

Just Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunn, Lance Living people 1970 births Players of American football from Missouri American football defensive backs African-American players of American football Texas Longhorns football players Cincinnati Bengals players Frankfurt Galaxy players North Shore Senior High School (Texas) alumni 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople