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SALUTE to Delco Hometown Heroes & Pioneers, both on the field & off! 1946 and continued his collegiate career at the University of Iowa. After leaving college in 1948, he hitchhiked from his home in Pennsylvania to New York for a tryout with the New York Giants. Tunnell was the first Black player signed by the Giants (1948 to 1958) and later played for the Green Bay Packers (1959–1961).
Emlen Lewis Tunnell (March 29, 1924 – July 23, 1975), an American professional football player and coach. He was the first African-American to play for the New York Giants and also the first to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Emlen Lewis Tunnell was born in Bryn Mawr and graduated from Radnor High School. He played college football at the University of Toledo before and after World War II, he enlisted from 1943 to
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In total, Tunnell played 14 seasons in the NFL as a defensive halfback and safety having been selected as a first-team All-Pro six times and having played in nine Pro Bowls. He was a member of NFL championship teams in 1956 and 1961. When he retired as a player, he held NFL career records for interceptions (79), interception return yards (1,282), punt returns (258), and punt return yards (2,209). He then became a scout and one of the league’s first Black assistant coaches, helping fully integrate both the Giants and the Packers. In 1967, Tunnell was the first Black man and the first defensive specialist to be enshrined in Canton. Tunnell passed away at 50 years old in 1975, but his legacy lives on. At the beginning of 2017, the Sports Legends of Delaware County Museum in Wayne, PA, commissioned sculptor Jennifer Frudakis Petry to create a seven-foot bronze statue of Tunnell to commemorate the memory of this WWII and NFL hero. This statue is housed outside of the Museum where inside the Radnor Township Municipal Building, visitors are able to see displayed items such as his high school yearbook and NFL jerseys provided by his family.
In July 2017, NFL analyst Gil Brandt selected Emlen as the top safety of all time. This occurred just prior to Emlen’s fans celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his being the first African-American inducted into pro football’s Hall of Fame. Prior to the 2020 Super Bowl, Emlen was named one of NFL’s top 100 players of all time.
Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty! Tunnell served in the United States Coast Guard from 1943 to 1946 and has been commemorated in several tributes for his service during World War II. He received the Silver Lifesaving Medal for heroism in rescuing a shipmate from flames during a Japanese torpedo attack in 1944 in Papua New Guinea, and for rescuing another shipmate who fell into the sea in 1946.
