Lamar J. Lundy, Jr. (April 17, 1935 – February 24, 2007) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

for 13 seasons with the

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

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) from 1957 to 1969. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname ...

and was selected by the Rams in the fourth round of the

1957 NFL draft The 1957 NFL draft had its first four rounds held on November 26, 1956, at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia and its final twenty-six rounds on January 31, 1957, at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel also in Philadelphia. This was the 11th year th ...

. Along with

Deacon Jones David D. "Deacon" Jones (December 9, 1938 – June 3, 2013) was an American professional football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He played for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and Washin ...

Merlin Olsen Merlin Jay Olsen (; September 15, 1940 – March 11, 2010) was an American professional football player, announcer, and actor. For his entire 15-year professional football career he was a defensive tackle with the Los Angeles Rams in the Nationa ...

, and

Rosey Grier Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier (born July 14, 1932) is an American former football player, bodyguard, actor, singer, Protestant minister, and motivational speaker. He played professionally as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) ...

, Lundy was a member of the Fearsome Foursome, often considered one of the best defensive lines in NFL history. All four also did some acting; Lundy portrayed the boulder-hurling cyclops in the unaired pilot of ''

Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. Lightly dramatic, sometimes comedic in tone, the series was inspired by the 1812 J ...

'' (this pilot was later made into episode 4 of the series, entitled "There Were Giants in the Earth").

Early life

Lundy was born in

Richmond, Indiana Richmond () is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana, United States. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,720. It is the principal c ...

, on April 17, 1935, the first child of Lamar Lundy Sr. and Sarah Corine (Ferguson) Lundy. He attended Nicholson Elementary School and Test Junior High School in Richmond, and graduated from Richmond High School where he was a two-sport star in basketball and football, and was an All-American in both sports. Lundy led the Red Devils to the State Finals in basketball, playing for Hall of Fame Coach, Art Beckner. He was selected to the Indiana Basketball All-Star team that defeated the Kentucky All-Stars in 1953. He was also an All-State player in football. He was All State in football in 1951 and 1952. The football team was undefeated in 1952 and 1953, and the basketball team went to the final four in 1953. He was named a distinguished alumnus in 1998.

College

When it came time to choose a college, Lamar selected and attended

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

, where he was the first black student to receive a

scholarship, and where he was named MVP of both the football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

teams in his senior year. He led the Boilermakers football team in receiving his senior season and was a two time All-Big Ten (2nd Team) end. As a collegiate basketball player at

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

, Lamar scored 678 points (73rd all-time for the Boilermakers) and collected 533 rebounds (29th all-time for the Boilermakers). He averaged 10.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game from 1954 to 1957. He was a 3rd team All-Big Ten Center in 1957. Lundy was inducted into the

Indiana Football Hall of Fame The Indiana Football Hall of Fame is a sports museum and hall of fame in Richmond, Indiana. It honors persons associated with high school, college and professional American football in Indiana. It also works to establish scholarships and endowments ...

in 1975, the

Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame is a sports museum and hall of fame in New Castle, Indiana. While it honors men and women associated with high school, college, and professional basketball in Indiana, an emphasis is placed on the athlete's high ...

in 1990, and the Purdue Hall of Fame in 1995; being one of only two people inducted into both Indiana's football and basketball halls of fame. In June of 1968, he was honored by the city of Richmond. Lundy played in the Chicago All Star game, where college all-stars played an NFL team. In 2023, the John Purdue Club created the Lundy League, a capital gift society for donors to support Purdue Athletics, and to honor Lundy and his "above and beyond" mentality.

Professional career

At 6 ft 7 in or 6 ft 8 in and 245 or 250 pounds, Lundy was selected by both NFL and

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

teams, but he opted for a career in football. He was drafted by the

St. Louis Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at S ...

in the 1957 NBA draft, and the Los Angeles Rams in the fourth round of the

(47th overall). Early in his professional career (1957-1959), Lundy (number 85) played mostly at tight end, catching 35 passes for 584 yards, a 16.7 yards per catch average, and 6

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s. Twenty-five of those receptions were in 1958. He switched to defensive end full time in 1960. He scored an additional 3 touchdowns on

interception In Ball game, ball-playing Competitive sport, competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for ...

returns, an NFL record for defensive linemen (and the only 3 interceptions of his NFL career). He was a member of the Rams "Fearsome Foursome" defensive lines, with Hall of fame defensive end

, Hall of fame tackle

, and originally tackle Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier in the mid-1960s. From 1967 to 1969 tackle Roger Brown became the fourth lineman, with some considering them the most dominant defensive line in NFL history. Jones, a member of the NFL 100th Anniversary All Time Team at defensive end (Olsen holding the same honor at tackle), considered Lundy his mentor in Jones' difficult early years with the Rams. Lundy was on the Rams defense that ended Hall of fame, and 100th anniversary team member, Baltimore Colts quarterback

Johnny Unitas John Constantine Unitas (; May 7, 1933 – September 11, 2002) was an American professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons, primarily with the Baltimore Colts. Nicknamed "J ...

's 47 game touchdown streak. Lundy played 152 games over thirteen years for the Rams, leading the team in

quarterback sacks In gridiron football, a sack occurs when the quarterback (or another offensive player acting as a passer) is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass, when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in the ...

in 1961, with 60.5 sacks over his Rams' career. He was selected to the

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players. The format has changed ...

in 1959, and was

All Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list th ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

. When he retired as a player, Lundy became an assistant coach for the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

under Hall of fame coach

Sid Gillman Sidney Gillman (October 26, 1911 – January 3, 2003) was an American football player, coach and executive. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wid ...

, but was forced by illness to cease coaching.

Death

Lundy died at age 71 on February 24, 2007. He was the first of the Fearsome Foursome to pass away. Lundy was ill with

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

Graves disease Graves' disease, also known as toxic diffuse goiter or Basedow's disease, is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. It frequently results in and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. It also often results in an enlarged thyroid. ...

myasthenia gravis Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a long-term neuromuscular junction disease that leads to varying degrees of skeletal muscle weakness. The most commonly affected muscles are those of the eyes, face, and swallowing. It can result in double vision, ...

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, and

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina pectoris, angina, myocardial infarction, heart attack), heart failure, ...

. At the time of his death he had 5 children, 19 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren.

Honors

* Selected to play in the 1959 NFL

. * Selected to the NFL

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...

team in 1967. * Inducted into the

in 1975. * Inducted into the

in 1990.Lundy
http://www.hoopshall.com/hall-of-fame/lamar-lundy/?query=misc1.eq.Richmond&xsearch_id=HallofFame_Highschool&xsearch /nowiki>=Richmond&back=HallofFame, Lamar Lundy] * Inducted into the

Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995 * The National Rd. West Bridge, in his hometown of Richmond, Indiana, was renamed "Lamar Lundy Memorial Bridge" in honor of him.

References

External links

Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lundy, Lamar 1935 births 2007 deaths American football defensive ends American football defensive tackles Los Angeles Rams players Purdue Boilermakers football players Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball players Western Conference Pro Bowl players Sportspeople from Richmond, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana Basketball players from Indiana Burials at Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Indiana American men's basketball players 20th-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen