Born Lino
Dante Amici in Italy, the family immigrated to the United States,
returned to Italy, and finally came back to settle in Kenosha,
Wisconsin. Legally changing his name to Alan at the age of sixteen,
Ameche put Mary Bradford High School in the history books as one of
Wisconsin's greatest football teams, one that scored more touchdowns
than opponents scored points in his senior year. Ameche tallied 108
points for the undefeated state champions while setting a host of city
records. He went to the state finals in track for the 100-yard sprint
and also won the state shot put title. After knocking his first opponent
in the State Golden Gloves Championships unconscious, the remainder of
Ameche’s scheduled opponents refused to enter the ring against him,
giving him the heavyweight title by default. At Wisconsin, he captured the starting fullback
position by the fourth game of his freshman year with a 148-yard effort
against Purdue. For the heralded “Hard Rocks” squad of 1951, known as
one of the greatest Wisconsin teams of
all time for their frenzied defense, he became the first freshman to
lead the Big Ten in rushing with 824 yards. As a sophomore, he led the
Badgers to a tie with Purdue for the title, again topped the Big Ten in
rushing, and was All Conference for the first of three times. He gained
133 yards in the Rose Bowl vs. USC and then took on a linebacking
position with the one-platoon rules changes of his junior season. Ameche
was All American, Academic All American, and All Big Ten selections
averaging fifty-five minutes per game. Despite injuries, he finished in
'54 as the NCAA, Big Ten, and Wisconsin career
rush leader, totaling 3212 yards on 673 carries with sixteen
one-hundred-plus yard games. As the MVP of his team and the Big Ten
Conference, Ameche received the very first Walter Camp Memorial Award
and won the Heisman Trophy. Nicknamed “The Horse” because of his ability
to burst through the line “like a racehorse” and at times compared to
the great thoroughbred Citation, Ameche passed on pro wrestling and
Canadian League offers to join the Colts as their first-round draft
choice and was NFL Rookie Of The Year while making the first of his four
Pro Bowl games. Best known for scoring the winning touchdown in the
first Sudden Death overtime game in the 1958 championship bout against
the Giants, Ameche retired after six seasons due to an Achilles tendon
tear. His first Gino's Restaurant, opened in 1957, was parlayed into a
chain of three-hundred hamburger outlets with partner and Colt teammate
Gino Marchetti and both became multi-millionaires when they sold out to
the Marriot Corporation. A member of the University Of Wisconsin, State
Of Wisconsin, and College Football Halls Of Fame and voted as the
University's greatest all-time player, Ameche was under publicized for
the scope of his charity work. The reserved and polite Ameche who had
married his high school sweetheart and had six children, died of
complications following heart by-pass surgery on August 8, 1988.
Ironically, his wife Yvonne re-married another Heisman winner, Army's
Glenn Davis in 1996 and daughter Cathy married John Cappelletti's (1973
Heisman winner) brother Michael. Forever remembered by his nickname "The
Horse," Ameche remains one of the most respected and beloved figures in
the history of college football.
1955
marked Williamson’s only losing season as the Badgers finished 4-5. The
quarterback position was shared by Jim Miller and Jim Haluska and
sophomore Danny Lewis ran well but even when teamed with solid fullback
Charlie Thomas, the backfield was not at the level of the Ameche-led
units. With an inconsistent offense, only one of the losses, a 17-14
defeat at the hands of Illinois, may have been reversible. With the
opening of the AD position, Williamson agreed to move up and name a
successor as head coach at the end of the season. His seven-year record
of 41-19-4 was the best the Badgers had in the modern era until the 1990
arrival of Barry Alvarez and he took Wisconsin from the conference doldrums to
being consistent contenders for the league title. Milt Bruhn who had
been a two-sport athlete at Minnesota and served as the line coach and
Williamson’s top assistant at both Lafayette and Wisconsin was named as
successor to the post of head coach. As one of the most highly respected
line coaches in the nation, the starting left guard for Minnesota’s 1934
National Championship team, smart, tough but highly respected by those
he coached, was the obvious next-in-line choice. Very importantly, his
players genuinely liked him as he was “regarded as a gentleman, a
down-to-earth coach who treated his players like family.”
His 1-5-3
1956 debut was less than expected but Bruhn shifted to a Straight-T
Formation instead of the multiple attack Williamson had used. He could
not settle on a quarterback and used four in one game on more than one
occasion until Sid Williams stepped up. An African-American from
segregated Dunbar HighSchool in Little Rock, Arkansas, he was one of the
first Black signal callers to start for a major program. Halfback Danny
Lewis was the lone bright spot as the team's top scorer and he rushed
for 554 yards. Completing his career as a two-year letter winner was
guard Stephen Ambrose who later won fame as an historian, the author of
biographies about American Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, and accounts
of the Second World War that were best selling books that were made into
the popular movie Band Of Brothers.
If interested in any of these Wisconsin helmets please click on the
photos below.