Gideon ESPN Lampron lives up to his middle name in UD’s opener

After the game, UD coach Trevor Andrews told reporters who had just interviewed Lampron that his middle name was ESPN. Everyone thought that was Andrews’ way of highlighting how well Lampron had played. Then Dayton’s longtime director of athletic communications Doug Hauschild said, “He wasn’t joking.”

A quick glance at Lampron’s biography on the UD website confirmed his middle name is truly “ESPN.”

“My dad is a huge sports guy,” Lampron wrote on X (Twitter), explaining his middle name.

The Flyers were off last weekend and return to action at Indiana State at 6 p.m. Saturday. Lampron will get another chance to add to his ESPN highlight reel. In the opener, he made his dad’s decision to name him after the sports network look good.

Last week, Marty told the story of how he picked ESPN and how he got his wife Jennifer to go along with it.

“He has a brother who’s 10 years older named Gabriel,” Marty said. “I grew up in Boston. I went for months trying to talk my wife into letting me name him Larry Bird. It didn’t go well.”

When Jenniffer was pregnant with Gideon, she picked the name, Marty said, and wanted to go with Xavier as the middle name. Marty asked if he could pick the middle name. He suggested ESPN, but pronounced as ES-PEN. She said no, but they didn’t settle on a middle name before the birth.

“Then she delivers Gideon, and she’s out of it,” Marty said, “and the nurse comes for me to sign the birth certificate. When I signed it, I literally printed ESPN in capital letters. She was out cold when I did it. When she woke up, I told her I did it, and she said, ‘No, you didn’t.’ She didn’t realize I did it. She wasn’t happy with me.”

The name grew on everyone. When Gideon was a kid, the family traveled to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and visited the ESPN Zone restaurant, buying everything they could with Gideon’s middle name on it.

Gideon didn’t talk much about his middle name with his friends at school when he was younger. He wasn’t embarrassed by it but didn’t fully embrace it until his friends heard about the nickname and liked it. He uses the middle name on social media. He’s “ESPNGideon” on X (Twitter).

“I love it,” Lampron said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think it’s great. My dad had big plans for me, apparently, from the time I was born. So I just want to make him proud. My dad’s favorite thing on the planet is watching his kids play sports. I want to be able to deliver for him and make him and my family and the hometown proud.”

Lampron was a three-time all-state selection in high school and a finalist for Mr. Football as a senior in 2021. He played running back and linebacker and finished his career with 3,150 rushing yards, 41 touchdowns, 350 tackles, 19 sacks and three interceptions.

Lampron was a member of Dayton’s 30-man 2022 recruiting class.

“Dayton was probably one of the bigger schools I got an offer from,” he said. “I took my visit, and I got to spend a lot of time with guys on the team. I just had a great time. The players really sold it to me. That’s what our coaches say: ‘The players sell the program.’”

Lampron redshirted as a freshman in 2022. He appeared in 11 games last season and made one start. He ranked sixth on the team with 51 tackles.

Now Lampron is a starter, and he and the Flyers are off to a 1-0 start. St. Francis made Dayton look good by upsetting a Football Bowl Subdivision program, Kent State, a week after losing to Dayton.

Andrews gave the team Wednesday and Saturday off last week.

“After watching the film, there’s so many things that we could have done better as a defense,” Lampron said. “There’s a lot of things we did good, but there’s still just so much that we can improve upon.”