Christopher Zingo '90

Some athletes get better as they get older and Chris Zingo is a prime example of that. 
The hard-hitting all-state linebacker was a defensive stalwart on the 1988 Fairfield Prep championship team that went 9-1-1 and shut out Greenwich 7-0 in the Class LL final. He was a USA Today honorable mention All-American and was honored with the Mark Masiello Memorial Award as the MVP of the Fairfield Prep-St. Joseph game in 1989. Zingo also lettered in baseball at Prep, but he attained greater success at the collegiate level. 

Zingo attended Cornell, where he was a two-time Associated Press Division I-AA All-America linebacker (1992 and 1993), a second-team honoree in 1991 and a three-time all-Ivy League selection. He was named to the ECAC I-AA first team in 1993 after leading it in total tackles with 173. 

Named a co-captain as a senior, Zingo became the first Big Red player to amass more than 500 career tackles and set school records for tackles in a game (27 in 1991), season (179 in 1992) and career (512), plus career sacks (18). Incredibly, he recorded 10 or more tackles in every game he played, registering 20 or more tackles 11 times, and averaged 17.1 tackles per game in 30 career contests. 

In 1993, Zingo was a co-recipient of Cornell’s Pop Warner Most Valuable Player Award and was also honored as the Walter Camp Connecticut Player of the Year. He was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2004.

He played briefly in the CFL with the Shreveport (La.) Pirates in 1995, recording 62 tackles and two sacks in 10 games. When the U.S.-based CFL teams folded in 1996, Zingo was selected by the Ottawa Rough Riders in the fifth round of the dispersal draft, but never played for them.