Later Life and Death
After retiring from football, Lavelli ran an appliance business on Cleveland's west side. From 1961 through 1963, he served as an assistant to Graham, who was coaching college stars in the annual College All-Star Game. Lavelli was also an assistant coach with the Browns and a scout for the Chicago Bears. He later owned a furniture store in Rocky River, Ohio and had an interest in two bowling alleys. He had a hand in founding the NFL Alumni Association, a charitable organization.
Lavelli was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1975, joining former teammates Graham, Motley and Groza and coach Paul Brown. Later in life, he golfed and attended NFL alumni events and lobbied to get the NFL to recognize his and other players' AAFC statistics. The NFL refused to incorporate AAFC statistics into its own when the league dissolved and the Browns became part of the NFL, in contrast to the NFL's recognition of statistics from the American Football League (AFL) following the AFL-NFL merger. Lavelli called it a "double standard". He died in 2009 at 85 at Fairview Hospital in Cleveland of congestive heart failure and bladder and kidney infections. He and his wife Joy had three children, Lucinda, Edward and Lisa. Hudson High's stadium is named in honor of him.
The Akron Community Foundation established a Dante Lavelli Scholarship Fund in 2010 to help Hudson High athletes pay for college. “He was one of the best I’d ever seen,” Willie Davis, a defensive end who played for the Browns shortly after Lavelli retired, said. “He set the mold with his running patterns and catching the ball.” After Lavelli died, Graham praised his abilities and remembered his eagerness to get his hands on the ball. "He was always coming into the huddle and telling me he was open and that I should throw to him," Graham said. "He wasn't saying that to be a big shot. He just loved to play. If he was open by a few inches, he'd be yelling, 'Otto, Otto.' Many a time when I was stuck and heard that voice I would throw it in his direction and darned if he didn't come down with it. He had fantastic hands."
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