National Football Foundation

The Notre Dame team leader in receiving yards in both 1973 (404) and 1974 (667), Pete Demmerle helped the Fighting Irish and College Football Hall of Fame head coach Ara Parseghian to the 1973 National Championship, catching three passes on touchdown drives and a two-point conversion to help edge the Alabama Crimson Tide 24-23 in the 1973 Sugar Bowl. A Consensus First Team All-American and First Team Academic All-America selection, he led Notre Dame to a 10-2 finish in 1974 after a 13-11 win over the Crimson Tide in the 1975 Orange Bowl. Compiling a 3.18 GPA in English, Demmerle was a member of the Dean’s List and served on the Committee on Academic Progress.

Demmerle was selected in the 13^th round (320^th overall) of the 1975 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers. An injury ended his football playing days and he went on to graduate from Fordham Law School in 1979. Demmerle spent most of his postgraduate life as a highly respected lawyer with the international firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, L.L.P. After starting his legal career in utilities, Demmerle later went on to become the senior insurance partner, chair of the insurance practice group and a member of the steering committee for the firm.

Demmerle became an inspiring advocate for ALS research, after being diagnosed in 1999 with the degenerative condition. As a former ALS Association advocacy chair, Demmerle led all aspects of ALS advocacy, including travel to Washington, D.C., for the annual National ALS Advocacy Day. The Muscular Dystrophy Association's 2002 Wings Over Wall Street gala benefit, held at the Marriot Marquis in the heart of Times Square, raised some $1.9 million for ALS research. Demmerle was honored at that event with the MDA's 2002 Spirit Award.

Demmerle was honored by the Notre Dame Monogram Club with its 2003 Moose Krause Award, in recognition of his distinguished service that included a successful career in insurance law while also serving as a tireless advocate for ALS awareness and research funding, with top research being conducted at Johns Hopkins and Columbia. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 53.