Brian Piccolo
Piccolo in 1967
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| Position: | Running back | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Date of birth: | October 31, 1943 | ||||||||||
| Place of birth: | Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Date of death: | June 16, 1970 (aged 26) | ||||||||||
| Place of death: | New York City, New York | ||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight: | 205 lb (93 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school: | Fort Lauderdale (FL) Central Catholic |
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| College: | Wake Forest | ||||||||||
| Undrafted: | 1965 | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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| Rushing yards: | 927 |
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| Rushing touchdowns: | 4 |
| Receiving yards: | 537 |
| Receiving touchdowns: | 1 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Louis Brian Piccolo (October 31, 1943 – June 16, 1970) was a professional American football player, a running back for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) for four years. He died at age 26 from embryonal cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of germ cell testicular cancer, first diagnosed after it had spread to his chest cavity.
Piccolo was the subject of the 1971 TV movie Brian's Song, with a remake (of the same title) TV movie filmed in 2001. He was portrayed in the original film by James Caan and by Sean Maher in the 2001 remake.
Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Piccolo was the youngest of three sons of Joseph and Irene Piccolo. The family moved south to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when Piccolo was three, due to his parents' concerns for his brother Don's health. Piccolo and his brothers were athletes, and he was a star running back on his high school football team although he considered baseball his primary sport. He graduated from the former Central Catholic High School (now St. Thomas Aquinas High School) in Fort Lauderdale in 1961.
Piccolo played college football at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; his only other scholarship offer was from Wichita State. He led the nation in rushing and scoring during his senior season in 1964, and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Player of the Year, yet went unselected in the both the AFL and NFL drafts.
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