University of San Francisco Athletics

Gino Marchetti was born on January 2, 1926, in Smithers, WV, and attended Antioch High School in California. The son of Italian immigrants, he left high school in 1944 to enlist in the United States Army and served from 1944 to 1946 during World War II in the 69^th Infantry as a machine gunner, and was at the Battle of the Bulge. Reflecting on his Army experience, Marchetti told ESPN in an interview, that it was “life-altering. If I had not gone into 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 have probably stayed home, graduated [from high school] 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.”

After the war, he was recruited by Kuharich’s Assistant, Brad Lynn, who found Marchetti working in his father’s bar in Antioch and attending Modesto Junior College along with his brother Angelo. Marchetti had discovered at junior college that at 6’ 4”, 225 lbs., he was good at football. He was 25 years old, a high school dropout, had long flowing hair, had a beer in one hand, and a cigarette between his lips. Lynn told him they wanted him at USF but he would have to cut his hair, stop smoking and quit drinking.  Sports Illustrated reports that he drove his motorcycle to his interview in San Francisco, and when Kuharich took a look at the biker in a black leather jacket, he asked Lynn: “where on earth did you find this hillbilly?”  Marchetti took them up on the offer, and played as a defensive tackle for the Dons from, 1949 to 1952. On weekends he would return to Antioch and play in a semi-pro league, under an assumed name.  “I was more worried about getting hurt than about getting caught. I wouldn’t have been any fun to face coach Kuharich with a Sunday afternoon injury (The Chattanoogan).”
 
Under Head Coach Joe Kuharich, the Dons went undefeated at 9-0-0 in the 1951 season. With two African-American players on the team, Toler and Ollie Matson, they were not invited to any post-season bowl games.  Apparently, the owner of the Gator Bowl, Sam Wolfson, had made an agreement with the Orange and Sugar Bowls to omit teams with black players. When the Orange Bowl extended an invitation to them, on the condition that the two African-American players be excluded, the team unanimously declined, and from then on, they were called the “undefeated, untied, and uninvited.”  “Nobody on that team ever said that they regretted the decision that we had made," Marchetti said to ESPN. "It was 100 percent in favor of not playing, so we didn't go. I went home and went back to work.”  Although the Dons had been denied a bowl berth, the entire team was recognized at the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, at long last making an appearance in a bowl game.

Unfortunately, without post-season funding, USF was forced to shut down its football program the following year. Attendance at the Kezar games had declined 80% since the arrival of the 49ers in 1946. The squad featured nine future NFL players, including Pro Football Hall of Fame members Matson, Marchetti, and St.Clair, and five earned Pro Bowl selections at some point in their career. The team’s Sports Information Director, Pete Rozelle, served as NFL Commissioner for 29 years.

Upon graduating from USF, Marchetti was selected by the New York Yanks in Round 2 (14^th pick overall) in the 1952 NFL draft. During his rookie season, the Yanks moved to Dallas, and then became the Baltimore Colts in 1953. Marchetti played 13 seasons with the Colts and they won NFL Championships in 1958 and 1959. He was known as a relentless pass-rusher, and was voted the “greatest defensive end in pro football history” by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972. He started to play offensive tackle in 1954, and then returned to defensive end in 1955. His teammate Art Donovan said that with the Colts, Marchetti was their “Enforcer”. The Los Angeles Rams Head Coach, Sid Gillman, said to TSN Presents: it was “a waste of time to run around this guy’s end. It’s a lost play. You don’t even bother to try it.”

He made a famous play in the 1958 NFL Championship Game when he tackled Frank Gifford and prevented a first down. He fractured an ankle on the play, but as team captain, insisted on watching the rest of the game from the bench. That injury preventing him from playing in the Pro Game that year.

He was chosen for the Pro-Bowl 11 times, First Team All-Pro Honoree 9 times, and was named to the 1950’s All-Decade Team, and to the 50^th, 75^th and 100^th Anniversary All-Time NFL Teams. He was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, the Modesto Junior College Hall of Fame in 1990, and the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. He is listed on the Sporting News’  list of 100 Greatest Football Players, and was named to the All-Madden All-Millennium Team in 2000, and to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.

Packers’ Forrest Gregg said of Marchetti: "You ask who was the best ... just my opinion, Marchetti was the best all-around player I ever played against. Great pass rusher. Great against the run. And he never let you rest”. The Washington Post reported that Detroit Lions quarterback Bobby Layne said that being tackled by Marchetti was “like running into a tree trunk in the dark.” In 1959, Marchetti opened a fast-food restaurant with several of his teammates, which became known as Gino’s Hamburgers. It was a successful Mid-Atlantic chain with 313 locations, which eventually sold to Marriott in 1982 and was renamed Roy Rogers Restaurant. In 2009, Marchetti teamed with some former Gino’s employees to open a new restaurant in the company’s former home town, King of Prussia, PA, and Gino’s Burgers and Chicken was born. 

His grandson Conner, who published a biography of Marchetti, played as a tight end for UCLA, and coached for the Seattle Seahawks, winning a Super Bowl with them.