University of Delaware Athletics
UD Alum Larry Catuzzi to be Inducted into Bowl Season Leadership Hall of Fame
11/2/2022 2:13:00 PM | Football
NEWARK, Del. – University of Delaware football alum Larry Catuzzi has been selected as a member of the 2022 Bowl Season Leadership Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport of college football, Bowl Season and the TaxAct Texas Bowl. Catuzzi, who donned the Blue & Gold from 1955-57, has dedicated more than 30 years to growing the business of postseason college football.
Catuzzi served as Delaware's starting quarterback for the 1956 and 1957 seasons, passing for 1,047 yards and 12 touchdowns during those two seasons. He was also the Blue Hens' primary punter during that time, averaging 33.5 yards on 57 punts.
Following his graduation from UD, Catuzzi spent 12 seasons as a collegiate coach, with stops at Dayton, Indiana and Ohio State before becoming the head coach at Williams College from 1968-1970.
After a successful career in investment banking, Catuzzi returned to college football as a member of the Board of Directors for the Bluebonnet Bowl Association, serving as President throughout the early 1980s. The Bluebonnet Bowl proudly served college football fans and charities through the Houston community as a mainstay on the Bowl Season calendar from 1959 until 1987. During Catuzzi's time as a member of the leadership of the event, the Bluebonnet Bowl featured teams from the Big 10, Pac-10, Southwest Conference, Big 8 and SEC and included legendary matchups between coaching greats like Bo Schembechler, Jimmy Johnson, John Robinson, Bill Yeoman, Grant Teaff, Johnny Majors, Lou Holtz, Terry Donahue and many others.
Catuzzi also served as Vice Chairman of the Harris-County Houston Sports Authority and was instrumental in paving the road for NRG Stadium to be built in 2002 and bringing big-time college football back to Houston. He was a founding member of the TaxAct Texas Bowl Board of Directors upon its launch in 2006 and part of the group that forged the sale of the event to ESPN in 2009. He continues to still serve on the TaxAct Texas Bowl and HCHSA today as the longest-serving member of both organizations.
Since 2001, following the tragedies of 9/11 that took his daughter Lauren's life, Larry has also served as a director of the Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas Foundation, which provided numerous scholarships to young women around the country entering college and, in addition, in conjunction with the City of Houston, built Lauren's Garden at Market Square Park, honoring Lauren and all the victims of 9/11. He also served on the Flight 93 Federal Advisory Commission, championing efforts to develop, fundraise for and finance the Flight 93 National Museum that opened in Shanksville, PA in 2011.
Coach Catuzzi joins five other new members into the Leadership Hall of Fame class for 2022 including Richard Giannini from the Bahamas Bowl, Mickey Holmes from the Sugar Bowl, Tom Mickle from the Citrus Bowl, Jimmy Rogers from the Sun Bowl and Ellie Ziegler from the Fiesta Bowl.
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