Mel Anthony (born January 30, 1943) 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 wi ...

running back. He played football for the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1962 to 1964 and was named the Most Valuable Player of the

1965 Rose Bowl The 1965 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1965, was the 51st Rose Bowl Game. The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Oregon State Beavers by a score of 34–7. Michigan fullback Mel Anthony was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game. Teams ...

after setting a Rose Bowl record with an 84-yard

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 Amer ...

run. He played in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

in 1965 for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, in 1966 for the

Montreal Beavers The Montreal Beavers were a professional American football team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The franchise began as the Indianapolis Warriors of the United Football League in 1961, where they played for four seasons. During that time the Wa ...

of the Continental Football League, and in the Midwest Football League in 1967 for the Ypsilanti Vikings.

Early years

Anthony attended Roger Bacon High School in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

. He played on offense at the fullback position and on defense as a

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, ...

for Roger Bacon's football team. In December 1960, he was selected by the

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

as a first-team All-Ohio defensive player at linebacker.

University of Michigan

In 1961, Anthony enrolled at the University of Michigan. He played at the fullback position for

Bump Elliott Chalmers William "Bump" Elliott (January 30, 1925 – December 7, 2019) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played halfback at Purdue University (1943–1944) and the University of Michigan (1946–19 ...

's Michigan Wolverines football team from 1962 to 1964. He was Michigan's lead rusher in 1963 and 1964. In two games against

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

in 1963 and 1964, Anthony scored six touchdowns (three each in 1963 and 1964) and rushed for 204 yards (83 in 1963 and 121 yards in 1964). He also rushed for 84 yards on 15 carries (5.6 yards per carry) against the

1963 Ohio State Buckeyes football team The 1963 Ohio State Buckeyes football team represented the Ohio State University in the 1963 Big Ten Conference football season. The Buckeyes compiled a 5–3–1 record. Schedule Coaching staff * Woody Hayes - Head Coach - 13th year ...

. As a senior, Anthony was one of the leaders of the

1964 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1964 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1964 Big Ten Conference football season. In its sixth year under head coach Bump Elliott, Michigan compiled a 9–1 record, won the Big Ten Conference ch ...

that won the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

championship and defeated

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

in the

. The 1965 Rose Bowl was Anthony's final game for Michigan, and Anthony was named the game's Most Valuable Player after he rushed for a career-high 123 yards, scored three touchdowns, and averaged 9.5 yards per carry. He also set a Rose Bowl Game record with an 84-yard touchdown run, surpassing the prior record set by Iowa's Bob Jeter in the

1959 Rose Bowl The 1959 Rose Bowl was the 45th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Thursday, January 1. The heavily-favored and second-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference defeated the #16 Cal ...

. Following the game, the ''Long Beach Press Telegram'' wrote:

"Anthony, senior fullback who has been playing in the shadow of Michigan's touted Bob Timberlake, barreled his way into the record books with three touchdowns. His 84-yard dash (it actually was 84, the play starting on the 15 yard line) was the longest run in Rose Bowl history . . . while his 18 points tied the Bowl scoring record established 40 years ago by
Elmer Layden Elmer Francis Layden (May 4, 1903 – June 30, 1973) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame where he starred at full ...
... Anthony also recovered the punt that was blocked by tackle Bob Mielke in the third period, grabbing It on the Oregon State 15 — and later going in for the touchdown from a yard out. His other score came on a seven yard run. Although Elliott said he 'probably could name 22 players who could have been voted player of the game,' it was only natural that Anthony received the honor."

Professional football

Anthony was selected by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

in the 16th round (223rd overall selection) of the

1965 NFL Draft The 1965 National Football League draft was held at the Summit Hotel in New York City on Saturday, November 28, 1964. The first player selected was Tucker Frederickson, back from Auburn, by the New York Giants. The draft was marked by the fail ...

. He signed with the Browns in early July 1965, but he was cut in late August, shortly before the start of the regular season. After being cut by the Browns, Anthony opted instead to play in the

. He was initially signed by the Edmonton Eskimos, but he was also cut by the Eskimos. He finally signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and helped lead the team to the 1965 Grey Cup championship. Anthony was cut by the Tiger-Cats in August 1966 and signed with the

. He played for the Ypsilanti Vikings of the Midwest Football League in 1967.

References

External links

JustSportsStats.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anthony, Mel 1943 births Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Michigan Wolverines football players Players of Canadian football from Cincinnati Living people Continental Football League players Players of American football from Cincinnati Midwest Football League (1962–1978) players