A captain’s legacy, on and off the field

Members of the 1988 conference championship football team gather in the locker room to honor former teammate Chris LaPietra ’89. Standing from left are Lou Savino ’90, Shane Connell ’90, Bill Gaberlavage ’90, Daryl Boich ’90, Matt Higgins ’89, and Don Taylor ’90. Kneeling from left are Andrew Nygren ’89, Steve Orlando ’90, Phil Ng ’88, David Baird ’91, Jeff DuMont ’89, and Walt Johnston ’90.

By Margaret Wilson

“We all have events, people, and institutions that change the course of our lives,” Bill Wagner ’89 P’26 says. “For me and many others, Lafayette is one of those special places.”

The impact of Lafayette, and the people he met here, circled back to Wagner almost 40 years later when William Gaberlavage ’90 contacted him and their fellow teammates with a special request: to honor their late captain while providing opportunities to future Lafayette athletes. 

Gaberlavage and Wagner were both members of the 1988 football team, which garnered an 8-2-1 record and won the conference championship in what was then the Colonial League. Chris LaPietra ’89, their team co-captain, passed away in 2021 after a short battle with kidney cancer. 

Chris LaPietra ’89

“There really wasn’t anybody that I think had such a great moral foundation and attachment to friends,” Gaberlavage says of LaPietra. “He just really believed in working hard, achieving goals, and standing by what you say. He was a guy that was in the middle of everything.”

Gaberlavage felt the call to honor LaPietra in a lasting way, which would mirror the commitment LaPietra had not only to football, but to the members of his team. 

“After we graduated, he was always trying to bring people back together,” Gaberlavage says. “If he was ever in the city, he’d call me up to meet, he would try to get people together. He was a guy that really tied a lot of us together when we all got really busy with our lives.”

After his passing, LaPietra continued to bring people together. 

“All of us think, ‘We’ll see you soon,’” Gaberlavage says. “But sometimes there is no soon, and that’s been one of my driving motivators behind everything I’ve been doing. It has everything to do with the bonds we built at Lafayette and the experience we had as students.” 

Gaberlavage took the reins to gather former teammates, like Wagner, and other friends and family of LaPietra to cement the captain’s legacy at Lafayette. Together, they identified an existing football scholarship created by the 1988 team that they could rename and contribute funds to in honor of LaPietra. Now named the Chris LaPietra 1988 Championship Football Scholarship Fund, the scholarship provides support to football players attending Lafayette.

“I felt like there needed to be some type of permanence and recognition,” Gaberlavage says. “And there was an opportunity to do that, and to do something I think Chris thought was important, which was Lafayette having a good football program. The main thing, for us, was giving a kid an opportunity to have a little bit of what we had.”

Financial aid is something that resonates for many football alumni, especially those who received scholarships to attend Lafayette. 

“I want others to have that same opportunity, especially if they come from a working-class background as I did,” Wagner says.

Chris LaPietra ’89

“I wouldn’t have been able to attend Lafayette without similar support,” says Joe Coffey ’87, a player approached by Wagner about the scholarship. “It’s extremely important when you consider that many football players come from middle-class families.”

Motivated by his fond memories of LaPietra, Coffey quickly jumped in to help fund the scholarship. “I remember Chris as a quiet giant and a great teammate, so it was an easy yes,” he says. 

To fund the scholarship, Gaberlavage appealed to those who knew and cared for LaPietra, working with the Advancement Office to come up with a grassroots approach. This effort eventually yielded over $1.3 million for the scholarship.

“I got people who didn’t even have an affiliation with Lafayette but had an affiliation with Chris, who gave meaningful donations,” Gaberlavage says. “I went to female students because, you know, they enjoyed coming to the games. I think it was sheer will and going down any path possible—and not being afraid to make those phone calls.”

“I, like many others, immediately jumped on board,” Wagner says. “The combination of rigorous academics, an engaging social environment, and Division I sports remains unique and helped shape Chris, myself, and thousands of other Lafayette students. Chris recognized this, and the chance to give another young person a similar opportunity through a scholarship in Chris’ name just made so much sense.”

Members of the 1988 football team at the wedding of Jeff DuMont ‘89 and Sarah Joust ‘89. Front row, seated from left are Chris LaPietra ’89, Lou Savino ’90, Walt Johnston ’90, Shane Connell ’90, and Keith Dionis ’89. Standing from left are Bill Gaberlavage ’90, Andrew Nygren ’89, Matt Higgins ’89, Jeff DuMont ’89, Craig Weiss ’90, and Paul Mignon ’89.

For Gaberlavage, this undertaking was more than an altruistic desire to give back to Lafayette—it was a way to process the loss of LaPietra by following his example. By involving the LaPietra family in the effort, funding the scholarship allowed for everyone to gather around a common cause—similar to the team’s experience on the football field.

“You get that instant sense of camaraderie in playing sports,” Gaberlavage says. “Chris set an example. He was my captain. He showed me how to be a player, and even though he’s not here, he’s still leading me.” 

Just as LaPietra did for him, Gaberlavage is hoping to set an example for both current students and alumni. 

“The experience of being at Lafayette, the friendships, what you learn, the professors you have access to, the alumni base—they’re invaluable,” Gaberlavage says. “And when you do come out and you do become successful, remember that. Remember that it’s not just you, and you owe something back and should help the next group coming.”