Reared in Detroit, the son of an Italian immigrant, Dan Rossi worked as a child teeing golf balls for customers at a driving range. Earning twelve letters in high school in three major sports, Don became a $35 per term, one-meal-a-day scholarship student in boxing and football at Michigan State University in the 1930s. As the starting quarterback, his football years at MSU included one trip to the Orange Bowl.
Starting in June 1949, Don began coaching at Jesuit, compiling a winning percentage of over 80 percent in the three sports he led. His 1949 football team went undefeated (with one tie), and many of his former players are in the Jesuit Sports Hall of Fame.
After his years at Jesuit, he was, among other things, Chief of Sports for the Air Force, member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Commissioner of the National Industrial Basketball League (forerunner for the ABA). Soon he played a key role in the organization and development of the new American Football League, becoming the first general manager of the Dallas Texans for Lamar Hunt, which soon thereafter became the Kansas City Chiefs.
After a stint with Riddell, a sports equipment firm, Don joined the National Golf Foundation, a service organization dedicated to encouraging the development of golf as a sport in people’s lives and offering guidance on every aspect of planning, building, operating, and maintaining a golf facility. He remained with the NGF, being its executive director until his retirement in 1983, at which time he established Don A. Rossi and Associates, a firm offering comprehensive golf services to private clubs and resorts. Don and his wife Ruth have four children, Michael, Gayle Lauren, Elizabeth Lum and Mary Donn Jordan. Dan passed away 3/12/1990.
