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Alan Ameche
Baltimore Colts Fullback Alan Ameche scores the winning 1-yard touchdown run in The Greatest Game Ever Played.
Date of birth	March 1, 1933
Place of birth	Kenosha, WI
Date of death	August 8, 1988 (age 55)
Place of death	Houston, TX
Position(s)	Running back
College	Wisconsin
NFL Draft	1955 / Round 1/ Pick 3
Career Highlights
Pro Bowls	1956, 1957, 1958, 1959
Awards	1954 Heisman Trophy, 1955 UPI NFL R.O.Y.
Honors	NFL 1950s All-Decade Team Italian American Sports HOF
Statistics	Pro Football Reference DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1955-1960	Baltimore Colts
College Hall of Fame

Lino Dante "Alan" Ameche (March 1, 1933 — August 8, 1988), nicknamed "The Horse," was an American football player who played six seasons with the Baltimore Colts in the National Football League after winning the Heisman Trophy in college at the University of Wisconsin. He was elected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons in the league.

Alan Ameche was born Lino Dante Amici in Italy 1933. After emigrating to the United States in the late 1930s, his family returned for a year to Italy, where little Lino was pressed into the Fascist Youth. The family then returned to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Alan was the cousin of noted actors Don Ameche and Jim Ameche. With colleague (and former Colts teammate) Gino Marchetti, Alan Ameche founded the Gino's Hamburgers chain. The Baltimore-based Ameche's drive-in restaurants were named for him. He died in Houston, Texas.

Ameche earned All-American honors at the University of Wisconsin, where he played linebacker as well as fullback in those single-platoon days. In four years as a Badger, he gained 3,212 yards, then the NCAA record, scored 25 touchdowns, and averaged 4.8 yards a carry. He won the Heisman in 1954. Ameche is one of four Wisconsin players whose number (35) has been retired, and one of three whose name and number appears on the Camp Randall Stadium façade (fellow Heisman winner Ron Dayne (No. 33) and Dave Schreiner (No. 80) are the others).

Ameche played fullback for the Baltimore Colts from 1955 until 1960. Named NFL Rookie of the Year in 1955, he was a four-time Pro Bowler (1955-58). He averaged 4.2 yard per carry over his career. He held the record for rushing yards in his first three NFL games until Carnell "Cadillac" Williams passed it in 2005.

Ameche may be best remembered for his role in the 1958 NFL Championship Game at Yankee Stadium, often cited as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Ameche scored the winning touchdown for the Colts on a one-yard run in overtime as the Colts beat the Giants, 23-17.

Ameche finished a relatively short six-season NFL career with 4,045 rushing yards, 101 receptions for 733 yards and 44 touchdowns.

• Italian American Sports Hall of Fame Bio
• Bio from University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives
• Ameche's page on the Heisman Trophy site