Heidelberg Athletics Hall of Fame
Labeled as the "watcharm guard," Lou Cellini was truly one of the great athletes in Heidelberg history. Just 5'7" and tipping the scales at a mere 156 pounds, he was 29 pounds lighter than any other lineman on the All-Ohio Conference team in 1940.
Sports writer Charles Baker once wrote, "Little Lou Cellini evidently never read the old sport page adage that a good big man is better than a little man." Cellini proved that speed and power made up for his lack of size on the football field.
Coached by Heidelberg Hall of Famer Merle Hutson, Cellini began his football career in the little down of Crestline situated to the west of Mansfield after moving there from a suburb in Rome. Coach Hutson immediately discovered he had a tempest in a teapot on the football field as Lou garnered All-Conference honors and was named captain his senior year.
When Heidelberg questioned whether Cellini was big enough to play college football, Hutson intervened to point out that Lou could hold his own with anything college football had to offer.
In the fall of 1939, Cellini began his career at Heidelberg and the campus quickly found him not only an athlete, but an excellent student. He immediately accepted the role of vice president of the freshman class and joined the Excelsior Men Society, Spanish Club, History Club, Education Club, and was a soloist in the Concert Choir.
On the athletic field he was first team All-Ohio Conference at guard and honorable mention All-Ohio in 1940. A year later, in 1941, Cellini repeated on the first team All-Ohio Conference. He also landed a first team spot on both Associated Press and United Press International All-Ohio.
Just before graduation from Heidelberg, he and many of his fellow students were called into active duty. He served with the 101st Airborne Division in Europe.
Graduating in 1943 from Heidelberg, he earned his master's at Bowling Green State University before becoming a member of the John Hay Fellows in the Humanities at Colorado College and part of the summer workshop history at Carnegie Institute of Technology.
He taught methodology to history teachers at Carnegie Institute of Technology before going to the Cleveland Museum of Art for the subject of the use of art in teaching of history, and Ohio University in working with an economic workshop.
Cellini, who played semi-pro football for the Galion Merchants, was elected to the Crestline City Council and served as a soloist for the Mansfield Mastersingers. He taught and coached at Crestline High School under his former coach Hutson and married the former Martha LaLonde in 1948.
Cellini gave up coaching and devoted the remainder of his career to teaching. He taught history at Mansfield Senior and Mansfield Malabar before retiring from Lakewood High School in 1978.
Lou Cellini passed away on December 13, 1991 in Lakewood.
(This profile appeared in the 1992 Hall of Fame Banquet program.)
