John Carl Stofa (June 29, 1942 – April 23, 2022) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

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 ...

in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL) and

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).

Early life

John Stofa was born in Johnstown,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, the son of John and Ann Stofa. He graduated from

Bishop McCort High School Bishop McCort High School is a private, Catholic high school located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in Cambria County. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, though it is not run by the Roman Catholic Diocese due to its priv ...

. He attended the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

where, as a member of the Class of 1964, he was the Bulls starting quarterback in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

and

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

. As a starter those seasons, the Bulls were 6–3 and 5–3–1, respectively. He set passing and total yardage records as the Bulls' quarterback. He also played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

at Buffalo from 1962 to 1964.

Professional career

Miami Dolphins, first stint

Stofa began his pro football career in the

in 1966 for the expansion team

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

. He played his first two seasons with the Dolphins, playing in a total of eight games, starting two. With the Dolphins, he completed 31 passes in 59 attempts for 476 yards and four touchdowns. His first career touchdown pass was a 27-yard completion to

Joe Auer Joseph Auer (October 11, 1941 – March 9, 2019) was an American football former running back. He graduated from Coral Gables Senior High School in Coral Gables, Florida and played collegiately for Georgia Tech and professionally in the Am ...

in a 29–28 win over the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

in the final game of the season.

Cincinnati Bengals

Stofa was traded to the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

prior to the 1968 season. He was the first Bengal in franchise history, signing with the team in December 1967. He has used the license plate "1ST BNGL. He played one season (1968) with the Bengals, completing 85 passes in 177 attempts for 896 yards with five touchdowns and five interceptions as the Bengals went 3–11 in their inaugural season. Stofa shared time with fellow Bengals quarterbacks

Dewey Warren Dewey Warren (born May 7, 1945) is a former American football quarterback for the University of Tennessee football team and the American Football League's Cincinnati Bengals. Warren was nicknamed "The Swamp Rat" due to his early years growin ...

and

Sam Wyche Samuel David Wyche (; January 5, 1945 – January 2, 2020) was an American football quarterback and coach. He was a quarterback and head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals and a quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers. As head coach, he l ...

. Stofa holds the distinction of throwing the first touchdown pass in Bengals history. In the team's second game, he completed a 58-yard pass to tight end

Bob Trumpy Robert Theodore Trumpy Jr. (born March 6, 1945) is a former professional American football tight end who played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1968 through 1977. He was a two-time National Football League Pro Bowler and a two-time American Footb ...

in the third quarter of a 24–10 win over the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

for the first win in team history. The following year, the Bengals drafted

Greg Cook Gregory Lynn Cook (November 20, 1946 – January 27, 2012) was an American football quarterback who played two professional seasons, in the American Football League (AFL) and later the National Football League (NFL). He played college football ...

to become their starter. Stofa was waived during training camp, but then signed to the Bengals taxi squad. He was later claimed off waivers by the Dolphins.

Miami Dolphins, second stint

Stofa returned to the Dolphins for the 1969 season and for 1970, the Dolphins' first year in the NFL after the

AFL–NFL Merger The AFL–NFL merger was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It paved the way for the combined league, w ...

. Stofa, playing behind

Bob Griese Robert Allen Griese (pronounced ; born February 3, 1945) is a former American football quarterback who earned All-American honors with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins. Gries ...

and

Rick Norton Richard Eugene Norton (November 16, 1943 – July 25, 2013) from Louisville, Kentucky was an American collegiate and professional football quarterback who played college football at the University of Kentucky and professionally with the Ameri ...

, played in just one game for the Dolphins in 1969, with 14 completions in 23 attempts for 146 yards. In 1970, backing up starter

, Stofa played in eight games, with 16 completions in 53 attempts for 240 yards and three touchdowns. It was the fifth and last season of his five-year AFL–NFL career.

Jacksonville Sharks

In 1974, Stofa returned to pro football, signing with the

World Football League The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 and most of its second in 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest t ...

Jacksonville Sharks The Jacksonville Sharks are a professional indoor football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, playing their home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Beginning in 2017, the Sharks began play as charter members of the National Arena Leag ...

in the league's only season. Backing up quarterbacks Reggie Oliver and

Kay Stephenson George Kay Stephenson (born December 17, 1944) is an American former college and professional football player and retired coach, whose latter career has seen him work in four different professional leagues. Stephenson played quarterback for the ...

, Stofa completed two passes in five attempts for 24 yards and one touchdown.

Personal life

He was inducted into the University of Buffalo Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973. He retired after many years with Medical Mutual of Ohio and resided in

Mason, Ohio Mason is a city in southwestern Warren County, Ohio, United States, approximately north of downtown Cincinnati. As of the 2020 census, Mason's population was 34,792. Mason is home to Kings Island amusement park and one of the largest tennis stad ...

. He was also a former board member of the University of Buffalo Blue and White Club, which holds annual fund-raising campaigns to provide scholarships for UB student-athletes and activities to enhance the visibility and reputation of the university's Division of Athletics. Stofa died on April 23, 2022, at the age of 79.John C. Stofa
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Statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stofa, John 1942 births 2022 deaths American football quarterbacks American Football League players Buffalo Bulls baseball players Buffalo Bulls football players Cincinnati Bengals players Jacksonville Sharks (WFL) players Miami Dolphins players Sportspeople from Johnstown, Pennsylvania People from Mason, Ohio Businesspeople from Ohio Players of American football from Pennsylvania Baseball players from Pennsylvania