Almost every sporting event in the United States has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help fill the void, this series looks at sports heroes who also served in the military.
Gene Rossides will forever be linked to one of the greatest college football upsets in history, the Oct. 25, 1947, game between the Columbia University Lions and the U.S. Military Academy's Black Knights, then known as the Army Cadets.
Rossides, a second-generation Greek American who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, played for the Lions from 1945 to 1948. He played a variety of positions — including kick returner, halfback and defensive back — but he mostly played quarterback.
What he did to our Army team in the last quarter was downright remarkable. He mixed his plays beautifully. I'd seen all the great Columbia quarterbacks, but I don't think they ever had a better one than Gene Rossides."
Earl 'Red' Blaik, U.S. Military Academy head football coach, 1941 to 1958
He still holds the school's scoring record for a single game with five touchdowns, achieved in a 34-26 win over the Cornell Big Red on Nov. 3, 1945.
Still, Rossides is best known for what came to be called "The Miracle at Baker Field." At the home game in 1947, he led the underdog Lions to a 21-20 victory over Army, ending the Cadets' 32-game unbeaten streak in one of the biggest upsets in college football history. The feat is especially remarkable because Army led 20-7 at halftime. At the start of the fourth quarter, the Lions were still trailing, but with Rossides' precision passing, they took the lead to win the game.
According to Greg Hotchkiss, Columbia Athletics director for communications, "Gene's passing and on-field play-calling carried the day. Army's legendary coach Earl 'Red' Blaik remarked, 'Rossides was probably the headiest quarterback at Columbia any of my teams had ever met. What he did to our Army team in the last quarter was downright remarkable. He mixed his plays beautifully. I'd seen all the great Columbia quarterbacks, but I don't think they ever had a better one than Gene Rossides.'"
During his four years with the Lions, Rossides completed 167 of 323 passes for 2,637 yards and 29 touchdowns, rushed 341 times for 1,110 yards and 17 touchdowns and caught 12 passes for 166 yards. He also was a major factor in the return game, as he concluded his career with 47 punt returns for 713 yards (15.2 average) and a touchdown and 39 kickoff returns for 809 yards (20.7 average). On defense, he intercepted nine passes for 115 return yards.
His football career is long remembered. Rossides was named to Columbia Football's Team of the 20th Century in 2000 and was inducted into the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.
Rossides didn't qualify to serve in World War II because he was just shy of 18 — the eligibility age for joining the military — when the war ended.
In 1949, Rossides was drafted by the New York Giants, but he opted instead to attend Columbia Law School on a full scholarship. Following law school, Rossides served a tour in the Air Force from 1956 to 1958, stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Here are some of his post-Air Force highlights:
- Served as a senior partner of the law firm of Rogers and Wells, now Clifford Chance LLP, where his career spanned nearly 40 years.
- Served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department from 1969 to 1973, where he supervised the U.S. Customs Service, the Secret Service, the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, the Tariff and Trade Office of Law Enforcement, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the Internal Revenue Service law enforcement operations.
- Helped to establish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in 1972.
- Appointed the first women to be federal law enforcement officers in 1972, inducting them into the Secret Service.
- Founded and chaired the American Hellenic Institute.
- Wrote numerous articles on international tariff and trade, the rule of law, and the 2014 book "Kissinger & Cyprus - A Study in Lawlessness."
- Served as a founding member of the Eisenhower Institute.
Rossides died May 16 at his home in Washington. He was 92.