Background
Newell grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, and attended Notre Dame College Preparatory and was a member of the school"s 1966 state championship football team
Newell grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, and attended Notre Dame College Preparatory and was a member of the school"s 1966 state championship football team
He graduated from Notre Dame in 1967.
He played college football for the University of from 1968 to 1970. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 1971 NFL Draft, but played professional football for the British Columbia Lions in 1971. Newell played college football for the University of from 1968 to 1970.
As a junior, he was the leading tackler for the 1969 Wolverines football team with a total of 70 tackles.
The 1969 team was the first team to be coached by Bo Schembechler. lieutenant defeated the Number. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes to advance to the 1970 Rose Bowl.
Newell had 14 tackles in the Rose Bowl, tied for second most on the team Newell was politically active while at During the fall of 1969, he was faced with a choice between traveling with the football team to Iowa for a football game scheduled for November 15, 1969, or traveling to Washington, District of Columbia, to be part of the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, an antiwar protest that attracted over 500,000 demonstrators on the same day.
After Newell chose to travel with the team, Schembechler praised him in his comments to the team for being "out there in Iowa City with the rest of the team, and not in Washington with the damn hippies where he really wanted to be."
As a senior, Newell started at right defensive tackle in nine of the ten games played by the 1970 Wolverines football team
That team finished the season with a 9-1 record and allowed opponents to score a total of only 90 points, an average of nine points per game. On October 3, 1970, Newell had a career-high 15 tackles and a fumble recovery in "s 14-10 victory over Texas Agricultural and Mechanical. He had 123 career tackles in his three years at At the end of the 1970 season, Newell was selected as a first-team All-Big Ten Conference player by both the Associated Press and United Press International. He also played for the North team in the America Bowl All-Star football game in January 1971. In January 1971, Newell was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the fifth round (125th overall pick) of the 1971 NFL Draft.
However, he did not appear in any regular season NFL games.
In September 1971, the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League announced that they were giving Newell a five-day tryout. After the trial period, he was activated by the Lions.
He appeared in one game for the Lions and was released on September 24, 1971. After retiring from football, Newell returned to the Chicago area.
He worked for 32 years in the financial services field for Smith Barney/Citigroup Global Markets, and he also served as the president of the Chicago Bond Club, the Children"s Home and Aid Society of Illinois, and the University of Club of Chicago.
Newell is married to Nancy Newell. They have three sons, Peter, Kevin and Brian, who was first team all Catholic league for the Fenwick Friars. In 2009, Newell was inducted into the Notre Dame College Preparatory Hall of Honor.
He was also a member of the executive board of his alma mater, Notre Dame College Preparatory