Joseph Americus Margucci (September 5, 1921 – April 27, 1996) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and halfback. Margucci was born in 1921 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He attended Franklin High School in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for

Santa Ana Junior College Santa Ana College is a public community college in Santa Ana, California. History In 1915, Santa Ana Junior College opened its doors to 25 students as a department of Santa Ana High School. It was the second community college founded in Orange ...

in 1940 and 1941. He had planned to transfer to USC, but with the United States' entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Margucci entered the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. He played for the 1942 Santa Ana Army Air Base Flyers football team. After the war, Margucci played professional football for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the

Pacific Coast Football League The Pacific Coast Professional Football League (PCPFL), also known as the Pacific Coast Football League (PCFL) and Pacific Coast League (PCL) was a professional American football minor league based in California. It operated from 1940 through 194 ...

in 1946 and for the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) during the 1947 and 1948 seasons. He appeared in 23 games for the Lions, nine of them as a starter, rushed for 111 yards on 60 carries, and scored seven touchdowns. He also caught 46 passes for 575 yards and three touchdowns and completed 13 of 31 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown. He was waived by the Lions in September 1949. After retiring as a player, Margucci worked as a coach. He began with four years as a football and basketball coach at Marshall High School in

. In February 1953, he was hired as the backfield coach for the Denver Pioneers football program. Margucci died in 1996 in

Encino, California Encino (Spanish language, Spanish for "oak") is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. History In 1769, the Spanish Portolá expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north t ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Margucci, Joe 1921 births 1996 deaths American football halfbacks American football quarterbacks Denver Pioneers football coaches Detroit Lions players Santa Ana Army Air Base Flyers football players Santa Ana Dons football players USC Trojans football players High school basketball coaches in California High school football coaches in California United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Sportspeople from Brooklyn Players of American football from New York City Players of American football from Los Angeles Coaches of American football from California Basketball coaches from California Military personnel from California