OBITUARIES / PASSINGS / Gus Cifelli

Gus Cifelli, 84, a tackle who played on three national championship teams at Notre Dame and helped the Detroit Lions to the 1952 National Football League title, died of natural causes March 26 at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., according to A.J. Desmond & Sons funeral home.

Augustus Cifelli was born in Philadelphia in 1925 and served in the Marines during World War II. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1950. That year Cifelli was drafted by the Detroit Lions. He also played for Green Bay, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

After his football career ended, he earned a law degree at the University of Detroit Mercy. He was elected in 1973 as a judge to the 48th District Court in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Cifelli called on his athletic ability in the courtroom in 1978, according to a report in The Times that year. When a litigant pulled out a gun and grabbed his attorney after a suit the man had filed was dismissed, the judge leaped over the bench and tackled the man, holding him until police arrived. Cifelli retired from the bench in 2000.