Marvin Luster (November 27, 1937 – May 25, 2020) was an American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defensive back and end. He played college football at UCLA and professional football in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for from 1961 to 1974. He was inducted into the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...

in 1990.

Early years

A native of

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

, Luster graduated from Belmont High School in Los Angeles. He attended UCLA where he ran track and played for the

UCLA Bruins football The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles, in college football as members of the Pac-12 Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. The Bruins play their home games at the ...

team. During the 1958, 1959, and 1960 seasons with the UCLA football team, he played on defense and offense (at the back and end positions) and caught 44 passes for 728 yards and eight touchdowns. He was selected by the United Press International as a first-team end on its

1960 All-Pacific Coast football team The 1960 All-Pacific Coast football team consists of American football players chosen by the Associated Press (AP) and the United Press International (UPI) as the best college football players by position in the Pacific Coast region during the 1960 ...

Professional football

Luster was selected by the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

in the

1960 NFL Draft The 1960 National Football League Draft in which NFL teams take turns selecting amateur college American football players and other first-time eligible players, was held at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia on November 30, 1959. Many players, in ...

, but opted instead to play in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He starred as a

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 ...

for the Toronto Argonauts and Montreal Alouettes. With the Alouettes he won the 1974

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

. He is a member of the

. In November, 2006, he was voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#35) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network

TSN TSN may refer to: Science and technology * Translin, DNA binding protein involved in microRNA function * Taxonomic serial number, a stable and unique taxonomic serial number issued by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System * The Science Netwo ...

Later years and death

After retiring from football, Luster resided in Atlanta. He died from complications of COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina, at an assisted living facility in Matthews, North Carolina.

References

External links

Just Sports Stats

1937 births 2020 deaths American players of Canadian football Canadian football defensive backs Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Montreal Alouettes players Players of American football from Shreveport, Louisiana Toronto Argonauts players UCLA Bruins football players Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina {{Defensiveback-1930s-stub