Hall of Fame offensive tackle Forrest Gregg called him "the best all-around player I ever played against. Great pass rusher. Great against the run. And he never let you rest."
Hall-of-Famer Leo Nomellini, the other great defensive end of the era, said, "He knocked down blockers like they were rag dolls. He had the look of death in his eyes on the field."
Hall of Fame quarterback Bobby Layne said trying to run past him was "like running into a tree trunk in the dark."
And Hall of Fame guard Jim Parker called him "the greatest player I ever played with." And both men played with Johnny Unitas.
That's what 5 Hall-of-Fame contemporaries said about Gino Marchetti.
Gino John Marchetti was born on January 2, 1926 in Smithers, West Virginia. To escape the crushing poverty already present in West Virginia, and made worse by the Great Depression, his parents, Italian immigrants, moved the family west. They settled in Antioch, in California's East Bay, east of San Francisco.
Marchetti would not be the only NFL player produced by Antioch High School: It's also produced Duane Putnam, All-Pro guard for the 1950s Los Angeles Rams; Ron Pritchard, linebacker for the 1970s Cincinnati Bengals; Jason Verduzo, quarterback for the 1990s BC Lions in the CFL; Evan Pilgrim, guard for the 1990s Chicago Bears; Frank Beede, guard for the 1990s Seattle Seahawks; Mike Lucky, tight end for the 2000s Dallas Cowboys; Jeremy Newberry, center for the 2000s San Francisco 49ers; and current University of Alabama running back Najee Harris. It's also produced 3 Major League Baseball players.
Marchetti did not graduate from Antioch High. He dropped out, and enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was a machine gunner at the Battle of the Bulge that December. He later said, "If I had not gone to the Army, what probably would have happened to me is, I would have gone to one of the factories, worked until I was 65, retired, and that would have been my life. That's what they did in Antioch. Because the war was coming to an end, I could probably have stayed home, graduated and never had to go. But it was the best thing I ever did. It gave me the discipline that I needed in my life.
He returned to Antioch, got his diploma, went to Modesto Junior College, and then transferred to the University of San Francisco, a Catholic school in a neighborhood between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park.
Their 1951 team also included running back Ollie Matson and offensive tackle Bob St. Clair, who would be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame; and Burl Toler, a linebacker who later became the 1st black official in the NFL, eventually one of the League's most respected officials. The head coach was Joe Kuharich, who would later prove to be a one-shot wonder, badly coaching Notre Dame, and disgracing himself as both head coach and general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles.
USF went undefeated, and gained national notice when it defeated Fordham University at Downing Stadium on New York's Randall's Island, 32-26.
The Dons (named for the Spanish lords in colonial California) were invited to play in the 1952 Orange Bowl. But the game's officials, knowing that Florida's segregation laws would not be held in abeyance for the game, insisted on not playing Matson and Toler. USF refused, and did not play in any bowl game. (The game ended up as a 17-14 win for Georgia Tech over Baylor.)
Despite being undefeated and ranked Number 14 in the country, the University canceled its football program after the season, citing the cost of running it. It was briefly brought back on the NCAA Division II level, but, currently, the school does not have a football program.
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Marchetti was selected in the 2nd round of the 1952 NFL Draft by the New York Yankees -- that's right, a football team with that name. Before he could suit up for them, they moved and became the Dallas Texans. In 1953, they moved again, taking the name of a team that had played from 1947 to 1950: The Baltimore Colts.
There was no major college in Baltimore playing football: Johns Hopkins didn't have a football team, nor did the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, and Morgan State University was then all-black. The closest major college team was the U.S. Naval Academy, which sought a nationwide student body. And the University of Maryland was considerably closer to Washington, D.C. (There was no Capital Beltway at the time, but, when it was completed in 1964, UMd was inside the Beltway.)
So, to the industrial city of Baltimore, the Colts became "the working man's alma mater." After the 1958 NFL Championship Game, they became what the Dallas Cowboys later called themselves: America's Team.
Head coach Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank molded a bunch of castoffs into champions: Quarterback Johnny Unitas, running back Lenny Moore, receiver Raymond Berry, guard Jim Parker, defensive tackle Art Donovan and Marchetti ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame; while running backs Lenny Lyles and Alan Ameche, receiver Jim Mutscheller, center Buzz Nutter, guards Dick Szymanski and Fuzzy Thurston, defensive end Gene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb, linebacker Bill Pellington (a Rutgers graduate), safety Johnny Sample and placekicker Bert Rechichar were Pro Bowlers.
In 1958, Marchetti was named Captain of the Colts. They got off to a 9-1 start, including hanging 56 points on the Green Bay Packers, 51 on the Chicago Bears, 40 on the defending NFL Champion Detroit Lions, 35 each on the Washington Redskins and the San Francisco 49ers, and 34 on the Los Angeles Rams. They also shut out the Packers and the Bears (the former in the same game, the latter not), and held the Rams to just 7 points (in the same game).
Their only loss in their 1st 10 was 24-21, against the New York Giants at Yankee Stadium. They closed the season with a 30-28 loss away to the Rams and a 21-12 loss away to the 49ers. But they finished 9-3, and won the NFL Western Division Championship. (Why a team in Baltimore was placed in the West, I have never been able to find out.)
That earned them a return trip to Yankee Stadium, to face the Giants in the NFL Championship Game, nationally televised on NBC. A key play occurred when Marchetti tackled Frank Gifford just short of a 1st down, but broke his ankle. Under today's conditions, he would have been carted off the field, X-rayed in the locker room, and taken to the hospital. But he was the Captain, and insisted upon watching the rest of the game from the sideline.
This was not unusual for him. In 1954, he had appendicitis. The following season, he dislocated his shoulder. In each case, he was playing again in a month. So, not yet knowing the severity of his injury, he said, "If we win this game, it's worth getting a broken leg."
Unitas led a drive in the last minute that led to the tying field goal by Steve Myhra, and another drive in the NFL's 1st-ever overtime that concluded with Ameche's touchdown, giving the Colts a 23-17 victory and their 1st title. It became known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played," and it made those Colts legends.
In 1959, Marchetti, Ameche, and some of their teammates opened a fast food restaurant, which eventually became Gino's Hamburgers. It grew to 469 locations, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic, including one on Route 18 in my hometown of East Brunswick, New Jersey. But in 1982, Marchetti and his partners sold out to Marriott International, which owned the Roy Rogers restaurant chain. It converted all Gino's into Roy's. Gino outlived his namesake burger chain by 37 years. He and his partners made $48 million from the sale.
The Colts won the NFL Championship again in 1959, defeating the Giants in a rematch at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Gino continued to play until 1964, with the Colts losing the NFL Championship Game to the Cleveland Browns. He retired, but came back to play one more season in 1966.
Don Shula, who played as a cornerback for the Colts, before a Hall of Fame career as head coach of the Colts (succeeding Ewbank) and the Miami Dolphins, said, "He revolutionized the way you play that position in the NFL. Prior to Gino, the attitude was to try to physcially overpower the offensive tackle. Gino showed that with good instincts and a lightning quickness, he could get around his man without really engaging him. The offensive tackle's uniform never got very dirty, but the quarterback's sure did."
An 11-time Pro Bowler, Gino played 13 seasons -- and was never assessed a 15-yard penalty. In an interview for John Madden's All-Madden All-Millennium Team in 1999, he seemed quite proud of pointing that out. He was a beast in total control, like Mean Joe Greene, Mike Singletary or Reggie White -- not an out-of-control psychopath like Dick Butkus, Jack Lambert or Lawrence Taylor.
What's more, Baltimore was a Northeastern city, but with Southern ties, and it took the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to really desegregate it. But Lenny Moore said, "He was my man, a great human being. With all of the racism and stuff going on then, Gino was right there in our corner, and we never forgot that."
Jim Parker, also black said, "For 11 years, I thought the Colts were going to trade me, and I was afraid I'd have to lay against Gino. So I watched him, real close. I never saw anybody beat him, really."
Gino was named to the NFL's 1950s All-Decade, 50th Anniversary and 75th Anniversary Teams, and to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Colts retired his Number 89, and, with the other Colts Hall-of-Famers, was elected by the Ravens to their Ring of Honor. He was elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame and the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame.
In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him 15th on its list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, 2nd only to Deacon Jones among defensive ends. In 2010, the NFL Network ranked him 39th on their 100 Greatest Players.
He was married to the former Joan Plecenik for 41 years. Together, they raised daughters Gina Burgess and Michelle Kapp, sons John and Eric Marchetti, and Joan's daughter from a previous marriage, Donna Lloyd. He lived to see 16 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Gino Marchetti this past Monday, April 29, 2019, in the Philadelphia suburb of Paoli, of pneumonia. He was 93 years old.
Forrest Gregg died 16 years earlier. He probably thought he could play football in Heaven all he wanted. Now, he's got to face Marchetti again. He must be thinking God has one heck of a sense of humor.
With Gino's death, there are now 9 surviving members of the 1958 NFL Champion Baltimore Colts: Running back Lenny Moore, receiver Raymond Berry, backup quarterback Dick Horn, running back Jack Call, kicker Bert Rechichar, center Dick Szymanski, linebacker Leo Sanford, guard Alex Sandusky, and safety Andy Nelson.
And there are 10 surviving members of the 1959 NFL Champion Colts: Moore, Berry, Rechichar, Szymanski, Sandusky, Nelson, running back Mike Sommer, defensive end Ed Cooke, tight end and punter Dave Sherer, and receiver Jerry Richardson, who, like Gino, went into the burger business, running Hardee's. He later became the founding owner of the Carolina Panthers.