OKLAHOMA CITY – Former Oklahoma City University football standout Leroy "Ace" Gutowsky has been chosen for induction into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, the Jim Thorpe Association announced recently.
Gutowsky helped the OCU Goldbugs find new heights in football, then found NFL success with the Detroit Lions. The induction ceremony for the 2013 Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame class will be held Aug. 5 at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum.
Other members of the 2013 class are University of Oklahoma wrestling great, Wayne Baughman; Chairman of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Clay Bennett; Olympic gold medalist, Nadia Comaneci; former Oklahoma quarterback, Jimmy Harris; Kansas basketball coach, Bill Self Jr.; and Oklahoma State two-sport All American, John Henry Ward. Gutowsky, Harris and Ward will be inducted posthumously.
Gutowsky played a key role in OCU's rise to success in football. OCU coach Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf, who also coached at Oklahoma State (then known as Oklahoma A&M), Kansas State, Northwestern and California, recruited Gutowsky to OCU from Kingfisher, Okla. Gutowsky was born in Komolty, Russia.
Gutowsky joined the OCU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1979.
"Lynn Waldorf got OCU's football program really going in 1927 when he brought the great Ace Gutowsky of Kingfisher to the school," former OCU end Leo Higbie once told The Oklahoman.
In his eight-year NFL career, Gutowsky set the league career rushing record with 3,279 yards and 20 touchdowns on 922 attempts for the Lions, Portsmouth Spartans and Brooklyn Dodgers. He was ranked No. 41 in a rating of the top 100 Detroit Lions, 39th on The Oklahoman's top 100 athletes of the state's first 100 years and among the best professional football players from Oklahoma ever.
In 1936, Gutowsky fell 3 yards shy of leading the league in rushing with 827 yards on 191 carries while scoring six touchdowns. That rushing total set a single-season franchise rushing record that stood for 24 years.
In the Lions' "Infantry Attack" backfield of the 1930s, Gutowsky was the bread and butter from his fullback spot. A 5-foot-11, 205-pounder, Gutowsky was also one of the most hard-hitting linebackers of the day while also playing quarterback and defensive back. The Lions tended to spread the rushing attempts between Glenn Presnell, Dutch Clark, wingback Ernie Caddel and Gutowsky's fellow fullback Bill Shepherd.
"He was a hard line plunger," said Presnell, Gutowsky's Lions teammate.
Gutowsky also set a franchise career rushing high with 2,445 yards on 698 attempts in five years with the Lions. In 1934, Gutowsky made second-team All-Pro after rushing for 517 yards and five touchdowns and helping Detroit allow only 59 points in 13 games. He led the Lions to the 1935 NFL championship.
When Gutowsky retired, he, Clark Hinkle and Bronco Nagurski were considered the greatest fullbacks to ever play professional football.
After a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in World War II, Gutowsky served as line coach for OCU during the 1940s. He eventually worked in the oil business with his father. Gutowsky became a champion bridge player. The American Contract Bridge Association gave him the "life master" ranking, making him the first Oklahoman to achieve the highest ranking in bridge.
Gutowsky died in 1976 of cancer and was buried in Kingfisher.
OCU fielded a football program from 1905-49, going 142-156-23. The team played home games at Taft Stadium.

Those with OCU ties in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame
Paul Hansen
Abe Lemons
Susie Maxwell Berning
Andy Payne
Arnold Short