American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
player. He played at the fullback position for the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
Lombard, Illinois
Lombard is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 44,476 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
History
Lombard was originally named "Babcock's Grove", after the Babcock brothers ...
, he attended
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
'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 List of NCAA football teams by wins, most all-time wins in college football ...
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, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
and
Ohio State
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...
, 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 36 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 ...
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, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'', noting that the informant, an editor at ''
The Michigan Daily
''The Michigan Daily'', also known as "''The Daily''", is the independent student newspaper of the University of Michigan published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Established on September 29, 1890, the newspaper is financially and editorially independe ...
'', 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, 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 and had a career-long 50-yard run in a 14-7 win over
Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. In his final game for Michigan, Rio scored two
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 in a 23-14 win over
Ohio State
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...
. 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 the opposite side of the field ...
from
quarterback
The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...
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, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...
in the summer of 1960, but he was cut by the Titans on July 19, 1960.
In June 1987, Rio died at age 49.