Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1992
- Class:
- 1978
After leading Columbia Hickman High School to the Missouri state football championship in 1974, Leo Lewis came to MU and became an instant crowd favorite with his daring punt returns. Chants of “LEE-OH, LEE-OH” reverberated across Faurot Field while he was lettering from 1975-78. He is the only player in Mizzou history to lead the Tigers in punt returns for four straight years and holds the school record for punt returns in a game (7) and most combined kick returns in a game (9). He spent 13 years playing professional football, 11 of those with the Minnesota Vikings. He was the Vikings’ director of player development from 1992-2005, He was associate athletic director for athlete development at the University of Minnesota from 2005-14. In 1984, he began an annual youth football clinic in Columbia, and in 1988, expanded it to Minneapolis, too. Active in community projects, Lewis holds a master’s degree from Tennessee, and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. He was athletic director at Minneapolis North High School from 2014-17 and has also taught sports management at the University of Minnesota. He runs the Lewis Sports Foundation which provides grants to youths, schools and administrators. His father, Leo Sr., was a football legend at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, and went to a Hall of Fame career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. He is also in the College Football Hall of Fame. Leo Jr., and his dad, were both inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
