Member Biography

Roman Gabriel has done it all. He was All-America football quarterback twice, Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year twice, Academic All-America, and captain of his team. Gabriel set 22 school and nine conference football records. He also played baseball and was voted the best amateur athlete in the Carolinas. In a three-year career he passed for 20 touchdowns and ran for 15. Against Maryland in 1959 he completed 23 passes. After college he played 16 years as a pro in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Football was his springboard to other pursuits. He went into TV and was in a movie, "The Undefeated," with John Wayne. He founded Roman Gabriel Sports Connections with a home office in Pineville, North Carolina, and branches in Arizona and California. The company offered training seminars, with Gabriel as motivational speaker. Roman also served as president of minor league baseball teams in Charlotte and Gastonia, North Carolina. He promoted celebrity golf tournaments for various charities - multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, leukemia, the blind, Special Olympics and the Salvation Army.