He was selected by the Newspaper Enterprise Association and the New York Evening Post as a first-team end on the 1930 College Football All-America Team.
[4] He also played on the 1931 USC Trojans football team that won a national championship.
[6][7] Arbelbide also served in the United States Army during the World War II era.
He was head coach of the 1942 Santa Ana Army Air Base Flyers football team for the first three games of the season before being succeeded by Lieutenant Bobby Decker in mid-October.
He was married to Fern Arbelbide and had three children (Garrett Lea, Janice and Cindy Lea) and lived in Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, Lodi and Pioneer, California, in his later years.