Louis Charles "Lou" Tepe (born June 18, 1930) is a former professional American football player who played

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

for three seasons 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 ...

Early life

Born in North Bergen, New Jersey, Tepe grew up in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...

, where he played high school football at Dwight Morrow High School.Moss, Irv
"Education continues to stoke former Steeler"
'' The Denver Post'', January 22, 2008. Accessed January 1, 2015. "The experience took Tepe back to his roots in Englewood, N.J., and to a time when he needed the incentive of playing football to keep him in school.... Born: June 18, 1930, North Bergen, N.J. High school: Dwight Morrow, Englewood, N.J., 1946–48" Tepe had received scholarship offers from four colleges, and chose

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

because it gave him the opportunity to get as far away as possible from where he grew up in New Jersey. Tepe graduated from Duke in 1953 with a degree in engineering, and ultimately went into the field as a profession after completing his three-season NFL career.

Career

He was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers, having been drafted as a center in the 30th 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 ...

as the 354th selection overall. Filling a need on the team, he shifted to

outside 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, ...

and started at that position for two years. Tepe had been signed by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League after the 1953 NFL season, but was released by the Argonauts in June 1954 as he was still under contract to Pittsburgh. Tepe was the right linebacker for the Steelers in all 12 games of the 1954 season, playing on a team that was pioneering the use of the modern-standard

4–3 defense In American football, a 4–3 defense is a defensive alignment consisting of four down linemen and three linebackers. It is called a "base defense" because it is the default defensive alignment used on "base downs" (1st and 2nd downs). However, ...

alignment with four down linemen and three linebackers. He was one of the last players to make the Steelers team in the 1955 season, having made the final cut that saw

Johnny Unitas John Constantine Unitas (; May 7, 1933 – September 11, 2002) was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Colts. Following a career that spanned from 1956 ...

eliminated from the team. While with the Steelers, Tepe wore jersey number 55 in 1955 and 61 during both the 1954 and 1955 seasons."Steelers All-Time Jersey Numbers"
,

. Accessed January 1, 2015.

Personal life

Tepe moved with his family to Denver in 1967. From 1995 to 2000 he was an assistant football coach at Littleton High School and in the fall of 2007, Tepe signed on to be an assistant coach for the football team of John F. Kennedy High School in Denver. Tepe has worked to use his influence with the National Football League to convince each NFL team to donate $100,000 that would be used to provide counseling to high school students in each team's home city. Tepe's older brother, Harold, was killed in action serving during World War II under General

George S. Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

in North Africa and was buried in Tunisia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tepe, Lou 1930 births Living people American football offensive linemen Duke Blue Devils football players Dwight Morrow High School alumni Sportspeople from Englewood, New Jersey Players of American football from Bergen County, New Jersey People from North Bergen, New Jersey Pittsburgh Steelers players Players of American football from Hudson County, New Jersey