UMass legend Ron Villone

There have been a number of articles lately about former UMass player Ron Villone joining the Yankees. His Yankee bio is here. Villone has had a 23 year career in Major League Baseball. His cumulative major league stats are here.

Villone was a two-sport star for UMass. He played TE for the UMass football team and walked on the UMass Baseball team.

However, many people do not know much about his football career at UMass. This article and this article both cover some of his career as a 6-3 245 pd TE for the Minutemen Football team.

Villone played TE for UMass for 1989-1991. He signed a professional baseball contract before the 1992 season.

As a TE for UMass:

• Stats 47 rec, 651 yards, 4TDs, 13.85 yards/catch
• 1st team All-Yankee Conference, 1st Team All-ECAC, 3rd Team All-New England (1990)
• 1st team All-Yankee Conference, 1st team All-ECAC, 1st Team All-East (1991)

The only image I could find of him in the UMass press guides was a very tight mug shot, so the image above is his Major league Baseball Rookie Card.