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 ...
player. He played at the fullback position 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 ...
Lombard, Illinois
Lombard is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 43,165 at the 2010 census. The United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2019 to be 44,303.
History
Originally part of ...
, he attended
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
's St. Philip High School where he played fullback for the St. Philip Gaels football team.
Rio received a football scholarship to attend the University of Michigan and played fullback for the
Michigan Wolverines football
The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its ...
teams from 1957 to 1959. As a sophomore in 1957, Rio appeared as a back-up fullback in games against
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
and
Ohio State
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
, gaining 33 yards in 6 carries.
As a junior in 1958, Rio played in the Wolverines' first five games, including two games as the starting fullback. He scored his first collegiate touchdown on October 11, 1958, against the
Navy Midshipmen
The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 33 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams.Michigan's basketball team, and Carl
Riseman, associate sports editor of the campus newspaper. Rio was accused of being part of a "$10,000-a-week football gambling ring" involved in selling "football spot cards", in which the purchaser bet on a series of football games and won prizes if he did better than the spread on a certain number of games. Michigan's athletic director
Fritz Crisler
Herbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler (; January 12, 1899 – August 19, 1982) was an American college football coach who is best known as "the father of two-platoon football," an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and d ...
immediately suspended both Rio and Lewis from their respective teams until the criminal charges were resolved.
The story drew national media attention, including a photo-story in ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'', noting that the informant, an editor at ''
The Michigan Daily
''The Michigan Daily'' is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Michigan. Its first edition was published on September 29, 1890. The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the University's administration and other stu ...
'', had been hung in effigy. After initially pleading not guilty, Rio and Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in November 1958 and were placed on probation by the university for the remainder of the academic year. The university announced at the time that Rio and Lewis could appear before the university's dean of men and the joint judiciary council to seek to restore their athletic eligibility, but a "high university source" said it was doubtful the two would receive "a clean bill of health." Newspapers reported that there was "only a remote possibility" that their eligibility would be restored.
In August 1959, the university restored Rio's athletic eligibility, allowing him to play football in his senior year.
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 ...
, in his first year as Michigan's head football coach, announced that Rio had been invited to join 75 others when practice opened and added, "As far as I'm concerned the whole thing is past."
Rio responded to his reinstatement with the best year of his football career, starting all nine games at fullback for the 1959 Michigan Wolverines football team. He gained 58 yards on 12 carries in an 18-7 win over
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 ...
and had a career-long 50-yard run in a 14-7 win over
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. In his final game for Michigan, Rio scored two
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 ...
s in a 23-14 win over
Ohio State
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
. His first touchdown came 70 seconds into the game on a pass 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. ...
from
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
Stan Noskin. The second came on a one-yard run in the third quarter. At the conclusion of the 1959 season, Rio was named the Most Valuable Player on the 1959 Michigan team.
Rio tried out with the New York Titans of the newly formed
American Football League
The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
in the summer of 1960, but he was cut by the Titans on July 19, 1960.
In June 1987, Rio died at age 49.