Pete Pihos could do just about anything on a football field. A member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, he was an outstanding pass-catcher, a powerful runner and a formidable blocker, helping to take the Philadelphia Eagles to two consecutive National Football League championships in the 1940s.
But a half-century after his playing days ended, Pihos had become debilitated by Alzheimer’s disease. His former wife Donna Pihos tried to raise money for his care by selling his memorabilia, only to be victimized by a swindle. A joint N.F.L.-players union fund aiding former players with dementia later contributed to the bulk of Pihos’s treatment costs at the Grace Healthcare nursing home in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he spent his final years. Pihos died there Tuesday at 87, Donna Pihos said.
She said that a neurologist who treated him believed that his dementia resulted from football contact. “We have footage of his being banged in the head over and over,” she said Tuesday.
Peter Louis Pihos (pronounced PEA-hoce) was born on Oct. 22, 1923, in Orlando, Fla., but grew up in Chicago. He was an all-American end at Indiana University in 1943, served in the Army during World War II, then returned to Indiana in 1945, when he won all-American honors again, this time at fullback on an unbeaten team.
Pihos played on the Eagles team that won the 1948 N.F.L. championship, defeating the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0, in a snowstorm. When the Eagles played the Los Angeles Rams in the 1949 title game, Pihos opened the scoring on a muddy, rain-swept Los Angeles Coliseum field with a 31-yard reception and run in a 14-0 victory.
“When he gets his hands on a ball, there isn’t much the defense can do,” Eagles Coach Greasy Neale was quoted saying in “The Eagles Encyclopedia.” “He just runs over people.”
Pihos, who missed only one game in his nine seasons in the N.F.L., won first-team All-Pro honors five times and led the N.F.L. in receptions from 1953 to 1955, his final season. He caught 373 passes over all for 5,619 yards and 61 touchdowns, and sometimes played defensive end as well. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1970.
He was an assistant at Tulane University and a sales manager for a North Carolina construction company after his playing days.
In his early 80s, disabled with Alzheimer’s, Pihos was living on his N.F.L. pension and Social Security. Donna Pihos, who had been divorced from him since the late 1980s but had become his caretaker, sought to raise money for medical and dental treatment by selling a football signed by fellow members of the Pro Hall of Fame, along with two of Pihos’s jerseys, his shoulder and knee pads, and photographs he had signed.
A Gloversville, N.Y., man, who claimed to be a physician planning to start a sports museum, bought the items. But the three $10,000 checks he gave her were worthless.
The man, Shawn Michael Stevens, pleaded guilty to federal charges of interstate transportation of stolen property and returned the memorabilia. He was sentenced to a year in jail.
When the swindle became known, the Hall of Fame Players Association and memorabilia dealers came to Pihos’s aid, funneling donations for his immediate health care needs to his family. Long-term aid came from the 88 Plan, run by the N.F.L. and its players union, which provides up to $88,000 a year for dementia-related medical costs incurred by former players.
The plan is named for John Mackey, the Hall of Fame tight end and players union leader who wore No. 88. Mackey died of dementia in July. The Hall of Fame running backs Joe Perry and John Henry Johnson also died in the last several months after being treated for dementia.
In 2009, Pihos’s daughter, Melissa Pihos, made a short documentary film, “Dear Dad,” with footage of her father from his playing days and images of him in his last years.
In addition to Donna Pihos and their daughter, Melissa, Pihos is survived by a son, Peter Jr., and two daughters, Nikki Walker and Lisa-Anne Mann, from an earlier marriage, which ended in divorce; a stepson, John Wesley Poole; and eight grandchildren.
Donna Pihos continued to visit her ex-husband and helped feed him at the nursing home until his death.
“I’m overwhelmed by the kindness of people,” she told Sports Illustrated in 2004 when its article on the swindle that victimized the Pihos family helped bring financial aid.
“I don’t think he grasps what’s going on,” she said. “But I tell him there are so many people who love and care about you. And he’s so happy to hear that.”
Pihos played with the Eagles from 1947-55. Philadelphia won NFL championships in 1948-49 and Pihos made the winning catch in the 1949 title game against the Rams.
Pihos finished his nine-year career with 373 catches for 6,519 yards and 61 touchdowns and led the league in receiving yards twice, in 1953 and his final season, 1955. He entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1970.
A six-time Pro Bowl selection, Pihos was nicknamed “The Golden Greek.” He lacked blazing speed, relying on pirouettes and pivots to break free from would-be tacklers.