Pete Duranko
| No. 55 | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Defensive end |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | December 15, 1943 Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died: | July 8, 2011 (aged 67) Windber, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Weight: | 250 lb (113 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College: | Notre Dame |
| NFL draft: | 1966 / Round: 4 / Pick: 61 |
| AFL draft: | 1966 / Round: Red Shirt 2 / Pick: 12 (by the Denver Broncos)[1] |
| Career history | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Career NFL statistics | |
| Player stats at NFL.com · PFR | |
Peter Nicholas Duranko[2] (December 15, 1943 – July 8, 2011) was a college and professional American football player. A defensive end, he played college football at the University of Notre Dame, and his professional career for the Denver Broncos. He had also been drafted by the Cleveland Browns. Duranko was an All-American and a member of Notre Dame's 1966 national champion team.
At Bishop McCort High School, he played football, ran track, and was a shot putter. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania State Hall of Fame.[3]
Duranko earned a Master's degree from St. Francis University of Loretto, Pennsylvania. After his playing days, he became a steel company executive. Duranko died in 2011 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which he had had since 2000. Postmortem research showed that Duranko had developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy.[4] He was one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head.[5][6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "1966 AFL Draft". Retrieved March 23, 2017.
- ^ "Pete Duranko profile" pro-football-reference.com August 14, 2011
- ^ "Johnstown native Pete Duranko dies". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Associated Press. July 11, 2011. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011.
- ^ "110 N.F.L. Brains". New York Times. July 25, 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
- ^ "The driving force behind Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)". Concussion Legacy Foundation. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
- ^ Ken Belson and Benjamin Mueller (June 20, 2023). "Collective Force of Head Hits, Not Just the Number of Them, Increases Odds of C.T.E. The largest study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy to date found that the cumulative force of head hits absorbed by players in their careers is the best predictor of future brain disease". The New York Times. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
External links[edit]
- 1943 births
- 2011 deaths
- American football defensive ends
- Players of American football with chronic traumatic encephalopathy
- Denver Broncos (AFL) players
- Denver Broncos players
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players
- Saint Francis University alumni
- Players of American football from Johnstown, Pennsylvania
- American people of Ukrainian descent
- Neurological disease deaths in Pennsylvania
- Deaths from motor neuron disease in the United States