Miami, Florida According to Metro-Dade police, a former University of Miami football player and his girlfriend had a tumultuous relationship that concluded in a murder-suicide on Tuesday outside a South Miami post office.
According to authorities, Lucious Delegal, 28, a special teams player for the Hurricanes that won the 1983 national title, was dejected because of a strained friendship with Regina Washington, 24, a letter carrier.
Delegal encountered Washington on Tuesday at around 7 a.m. as she pulled into the employee parking lot, and they exchanged their final, acrimonious words.
According to Metro-Dade police spokesperson William Kinnebrew, “there was a considerable amount of reported violence during their relationship.”
It marked the conclusion of a difficult existence for the former football player. He had spent his early years in and out of foster homes and reform schools.
His life was transformed at the age of 14 when he was adopted by Allen Gainer, his probation officer. Delegal went back to school and finally received a scholarship to attend Bethune-Cookman College. Before moving to UM, he started two games there.
His tenure as a Hurricane had also been unsatisfactory. In the final preseason scrimmage, Delegal had a shoulder injury that prevented him from starting at defensive back for the 1983 season. Reggie Sutton, who went on to
play for the New Orlean Saints.
But in an interview at the time, Delegal seemed pleased just to be part of the team. “Sometimes I hear guys complaining about the food or the facilities, and I say to myself, ‘Man, I’ve been places where they’d be happy to get half this much.”‘
Delegal started one game, his last after two years with the Hurricanes. It was the 1985 Fiesta Bowl, against UCLA. UM lost 39-37.