Dan Ross, football standout for Huskies and Cincinnati Bengals; always "just Danny" to friends and family

Dan Ross, CJ'79, was a devoted family man with a heart of gold.

He also happened to be a very talented football player. Ross, who died in May of an apparent heart attack following an evening jog, was one of Northeastern's greatest gridiron players, then went on to a successful pro career. In both the college and the professional ranks, he broke records and impressed colleagues and friends with his talent and humility.

"You couldn't find a more humble individual," says Bo Lyons, Ed'59, who coached Ross at Northeastern. "He shied away from being given credit, but he was the most outstanding player on the field, by far."

Ross's wife of twenty-eight years, Joan, acknowledges her husband's remarkable abilities on the field. But she says he shone even brighter in his life at home.

"He was much better at that than he was at football," she says. "Family was so important to him." An Everett High School graduate, Ross was recruited by Northeastern to play tight end. As a junior, he caught sixty passes for 913 yards and four touchdowns. In his senior year, he topped that with sixty-eight receptions, 988 yards, and seven touchdowns, earning awards as the outstanding player and the outstanding senior in New England.

Ross still holds the Northeastern record for receptions in a season, and is third on the all-time list for both career receptions (153) and receiving yards (2,343). In 1983, Northeastern officially retired his jersey, number 84. In 1986, he was inducted into the Northeastern Hall of Fame.

Lyons says Ross's specialty was pulling down the ball—no matter what.

"He had such concentration and focus on catching that football," recalls Lyons. "It didn't matter if he was hit three or four times. He never reacted to that. His thought was only to catch that football. And he caught it more than anybody else would in the same circumstances."

Ross continued his winning ways in the pros. In 1979, he was drafted thirtieth overall, as the first choice of the Cincinnati Bengals. He spent six seasons with the Bengals. His best year was 1981, when he set career highs with seventy-one catches for 910 yards and five touchdowns, and helped Cincinnati win its first AFC championship.

In the 1982 Super Bowl, Ross made a record eleven catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns in the Bengals' 26-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Though Jerry Rice and Deion Branch have since tied Ross's Super Bowl record, Lyons points out both are wide receivers. "Danny still holds the record for a tight end," he says.

Ross went on to play for the Seattle Seahawks, then wrapped up his career with the Green Bay Packers in 1986. He also played in the USFL for the New Orleans/Portland Breakers from 1984 to 1985. During his NFL career, he had a total of 290 receptions for 3,419 yards and nineteen touchdowns.

After retiring from football, Ross became the president and co-owner of WPWB, a television station in Riviera Beach, Florida. In 2004, he was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the first Northeastern player to achieve the honor. He and Joan lived in Atkinson, New Hampshire.

With longtime Northeastern sports information director Jack Grinold (left) at Ross’s induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, in 2004.

Although friends and family praise Ross's football talents, they say his greatest achievements were off the field.

"He helped every single person in his family, whether it was building a deck, or lending money, or going to a nephew's hockey game," says Joan. "He knew all of my sisters' kids' doctors and dentists, and would take them to appointments."

Ross taught his own children, Jillian, twenty-three, and Danny Jr., twenty-two, to fish, ski, and golf, and made sure to spend a lot of time with them during summers on Cape Cod or at Lake Winnipesaukee.

Two years ago, days before Joan was scheduled to donate a kidney to her mother, Dan said to her, "If you're too nervous, I'll do it." He couldn't be the donor, because he wasn't as good a match, but Joan was struck by his generosity. After the operation, she says, "he took care of me like you can't imagine."

According to Ross's Northeastern football buddies, he was ever reliable and down-to-earth.

"Whenever we got in trouble, we just threw the ball to Danny," recalls teammate Mark Nemes, BB'79. "He broke the New England record for receptions, but it wasn't a big deal to him. After college, a few of us used to go out to Cincinnati and watch him play. He never changed, though. He was the same guy we played with back in college."

Bobby Caloggero, CJ'81, another NU teammate, agrees. "He set records, he was drafted by the NFL, but he was still Danny. He could very easily have said, 'I'm big-time now.' But that wasn't him. That's what I liked about him."

Making one of his legendary catches as a Husky. Ross still holds the Northeastern record for most receptions in a season.

Joan says her husband didn't understand why people were so impressed with him.

"Everyone liked to hobnob with him, but he never understood that," she says. "He said, 'The only person they should be starstruck about is the president of the United States—not me, for just catching a football.'"

Adds Joan, "He made no social-class distinctions, none at all. He'd make the pool guy feel good, stand there and give him half an hour of his time."

Friends and family remember Ross as lighthearted, quick to laugh, and fun-loving. Nemes says Ross, who enjoyed both golfing and fishing, used to carry a retractable fishing rod in his golf bag and, in the middle of a round, would fish in a golf-course pond.

Ross was someone you could count on, they all say. "He was always there," says Nemes. "For funerals, wakes, birthday parties. He always showed up."

When Ross died, he appeared to everyone to be in great shape. So great, Caloggero says, that at Nemes's fiftieth birthday party last spring he told his friend, "Dan, you look like you could still play today."

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