Peter Newell (born March 9, 1949) 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 lineman. He played college 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 1968 to 1970. He was drafted by the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

in the

1971 NFL Draft The 1971 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1971, at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City, New York. The Boston Patriots, who did not officially change their name to New England Patriots until after the draft, used th ...

, but played professional football for the BC Lions in 1971.

Michigan

Newell played college football for the

from 1968 to 1970. As a junior, he was the leading tackler for the

1969 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1969 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1969 Big Ten Conference football season. In their first year under head coach Bo Schembechler, the Wolverines compiled an ...

with a total of 70 tackles.(To retrieve 1969 team statistics, enter "1969" in the space for "Enter year.") The 1969 team was the first Michigan team to be coached by

Bo Schembechler Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. ( ; April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006) was an American football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the University of ...

. It defeated the No. 1 ranked

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

to advance to the

1970 Rose Bowl The 1970 Rose Bowl was the 56th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Thursday, January 1. The USC Trojans, champions of the Pacific-8 Conference, defeated the Michigan Wolverines, cham ...

. Newell had 14 tackles in the Rose Bowl, tied for second most on the team. Newell was politically active while at Michigan. During the fall of 1969, he was faced with a choice between traveling with the Michigan football team to Iowa for a football game scheduled for November 15, 1969, or traveling to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, to be part of the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, an antiwar protest that attracted over 500,000 demonstrators on the same day. After Newell chose to travel with the team, Schembechler praised him in his comments to the team for being "out there in Iowa City with the rest of the team, and not in Washington with the damn hippies where he really wanted to be." As a senior, Newell started at right defensive tackle in nine of the ten games played by the

1970 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1970 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1970 Big Ten Conference football season. In their second season under head coach Bo Schembechler, the Wolverines compiled ...

. That team finished the season with a 9-1 record and allowed opponents to score a total of only 90 points, an average of nine points per game. On October 3, 1970, Newell had a career-high 15 tackles and a fumble recovery in Michigan's 14-10 victory over Texas A&M. He had 123 career tackles in his three years at Michigan.(To retrieve Newell's statistics, enter "newell" in the space for "Enter last name.") At the end of the 1970 season, Newell was selected as a first-team All-

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 ...

player by both the AP and UPI. He also played for the North team in the America Bowl All-Star football game in January 1971.

Professional football

In January 1971, Newell was drafted by the

in the fifth round (125th overall pick) of the

. However, he did not appear in any regular season NFL games. In September 1971, the BC Lions of 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 ...

announced that they were giving Newell a five-day tryout. After the trial period, he was activated by the Lions. He appeared in one game for the Lions and was released on September 24, 1971.

Later years

After retiring from football, Newell returned to the Chicago area. He worked for 32 years in the financial services field for Smith Barney/Citigroup Global Markets, and he also served as the president of the Chicago Bond Club, the Children's Home and Aid Society of Illinois, and the University of Michigan Club of Chicago. He was also a member of the executive board of his alma mater, Notre Dame College Prep. Newell is married to Nancy Newell. They have three sons, Peter, Kevin and Brian, who was first team all Catholic league for the Fenwick Friars. In 2009, Newell was inducted into the Notre Dame College Prep Hall of Honor.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newell, Pete 1949 births Living people BC Lions players Michigan Wolverines football players