(Note: Hornung’s gambling is public knowledge, but his alleged links to organized crime were revealed because of the release of JFK documents of all things. There does seem to be an FBI file with Hornung as the subject, which I do not have, so perhaps more secrets are out there.)
Paul Hornung made a name for himself on the college level. In spite of Notre Dame’s 2–8 record, Hornung won the Heisman Trophy in 1956 as the year’s outstanding U.S. college football player – the only time a player from a losing team has been so honored. Nicknamed “The Golden Boy”, the highly versatile quarterback could run, pass, block, and tackle. Many consider Hornung the greatest all-around football player in Notre Dame history.
Hornung was the first selection overall in the 1957 NFL draft. He was taken by the Green Bay Packers, with whom he went on to win four league championships. As a professional, Hornung played the halfback position as well as field goal kicker for several seasons. Hornung led the league in scoring for three straight seasons from 1959–61. During the 1960 season, the last with just 12 games, he set an all-time record by scoring 176 points in a season. (This was beat in 2006, but it took the player 14 games to do it.)
Hornung was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player in December 1961 and was chosen as an All-Pro twice and named to the Pro Bowl twice. He is one of only nine players to have won both the Heisman Trophy and the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award.
August 2-3, 1962: Hornung was staying at the Sahara Inn in Chicago along with coach Otto Graham (best known for his ten years with the Browns). The Sahara Inn was suspected of being operated by Mafia boss Sam Giancana. In fact ,the FBI had the place under surveillance and saw that while Hornung was there, so were Chicago mobsters Marshall Caifano, Felix Alderisio and Sam Rosa.
September 13, 1962: The FBI in Washington reached out to the Milwaukee office and suggested they discreetly speak with Vince Lombardi and Paul Hornung. They believed that while gambling, Hornung may have learned things about organized crime and its operations. It is unclear what prompted this, but the FBI was using Russell “Jake” Skall as their informant in the matter. Skall’s family was in the hotel/restaurant business in Appleton. His link to Hornung is unknown, but the speculation is that Skall was the link between Hornung and FBI Agent Bill Roemer because all three were Notre Dame grads.
October 1, 1962: Special Agents George Ayers and Edward Converse met with Vince Lombardi. He told them he wanted to be 100% cooperative in the matter. Lombardi explained that he managed a $2 million franchise, and any scandal that could occur would be bad for the team or the NFL as a whole, and he wanted to keep everything respectable. He said league rules said that the moment anyone suspicious came into contact with a player, it was to be reported.
Hornung was interviewed about questionable men he was alleged to have been seen with. Regarding mobsters Marshall Caifano, Sam Giancana and Murray Humphreys of Chicago, he said those names meant nothing to him. Next he was given the names of Kansas City mobsters: Thomas Simone, Carl Civella and others.
Hornung explained that while part of the Packers, he was also in the US Army and served with a man named Phil Lombardo (no relation to Vince Lombardi). At one point in December 1961, Lombardo took him to the Taco House in Kansas City and he believes he may have met some of the questionable men there, but had no real conversation. Another friend, whose name he would not say, advised Hornung not to go back to the Taco House, and he never did.
Hornung said he traveled the United States extensively and attends many sporting events. He said, for example, he had been in Miami during the Floyd Patterson versus Ingemar Johansson heavyweight fight and met legendary jockey Bill Hartack there. But it was a brief, social interaction and nothing was discussed. Hornung freely volunteered that he was friends with Newport, Kentucky bookie Gil Beckley and was going to sit with Beckley at the Miami fight, but Beckley said it was probably not a good idea to be seen with him because he was under indictment by the feds.
Commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended Hornung indefinitely in April 1963 following his own look into the matter. Rozelle’s investigation also showed that running back Hornung had associated with lumber company owner Abe Samuels, a West Coast gambler who was part owner of the Tropicana, a Las Vegas hotel/casino. The two men had met in San Francisco prior to the 1956 East-West college football game. They struck up a social relationship and later Hornung, who personally bet as much as $300 a game, provided him with “inside information” about the Packers team.
According to a report made public by the NFL, Samuels, who wasn’t named, had “developed the habit of querying Hornung by telephone regarding his opinion of the outcome of various games.” In one season, Hornung won $1,500 from his gambling on NFL games. Samuels admitted to betting nearly $100,000 each season. On April 17, 1963, commissioner Rozelle indefinitely suspended Hornung. (In 1986, Hornung told Sports Illustrated “that there were 10 or 12 other Green Bay Packer players who regularly wagered on NFL games in the team’s glory days . . . betting on games by players was rampant throughout the league.”)
Rozelle found no evidence of games being “fixed,” and Hornung gracefully accepted that “did wrong” and “should be penalized” for his gambling. He said he only made 8 or 9 bets ranging a few hundred dollars each, and they were with friends. He apologized to his mother, who he lived with. Immediately after the suspension was announced, both the American Football League (AFL) and Canadian Football League announced that Hornung would not be welcome as long as the suspension was in effect. (The AFL merged with the NFL a few years later and became the AFC.)
Hornung stated that it was his belief that it was Lombardi’s constant lobbying of Rozelle that got him reinstated for the 1964 NFL season. In exchange for Lombardi’s efforts, Hornung agreed not to have anything to do with gambling, to stay out of Las Vegas and to even forgo attending the Kentucky Derby which he had done annually.
Hornung was elected to the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1975, the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986, and the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.