Mario Joseph DeMarco, (July 24, 1924 – December 9, 1956) was an American college football,

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 ...

, and professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...

player, and was one of 62 people who died on

Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9 was a Canadair North Star on a scheduled flight from Vancouver to Calgary (continuing to Regina, Winnipeg, and Toronto). The plane crashed into Mount Slesse near Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, on ...

, on December 9, 1956. Raised in Boonton, DeMarco started at offensive lineman for four seasons at Boonton High School.Andrikanich, Ryan
"Honoring a legend"
''

Daily Record (Morristown) The ''Daily Record'' is a seven-day morning daily newspaper of the USA Today Network located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. The Daily Record serves the greater Morris County area of northern New Jersey, Essex County and the south-weste ...

'', December 9, 2006. Accessed July 19, 2011. "On this day 50 years ago, one of the worst commercial aviation disasters in Canadian history took the life of a promising young American football player who began his career as an offensive lineman for Boonton High School.... Mario DeMarco was born and raised in Boonton and played football for four years as a starting offensive lineman." DeMarco played professionally as an offensive lineman for the NFL's Detroit Lions in 1949, before joining the Edmonton Eskimos of the

Western Interprovincial Football Union The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), its counterpart being the East Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagu ...

for two seasons beginning in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

. DeMarco joined the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in ...

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

, and was a member of the team for four years until the time of his death. He was a three time West All-Star (in

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

and 1954). DeMarco's #55

jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...

is one of eight that has been

retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

by the Roughriders.

College career

DeMarco played collegiately for the University of Miami Hurricanes from 1945 to 1949.

Professional career

Following college, DeMarco signed with the NFL Detroit Lions, playing one season in 1949 and one season with the New York Giants. In

, DeMarco joined the WIFU Edmonton Eskimos, where he played for two years. DeMarco joined the

in 1952, and played with them until his death. He was a West All-Star in

and 1954, and was on his way back to

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 census, Regina had a city populatio ...

, on Flight 810 after watching teammates Mel Becket and

Gordon Sturtridge Gordon Henry Sturtridge (1929 – December 9, 1956) was a professional Canadian football player, and was one of 62 people who died on Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, on December 9, 1956. Sturtridge played his entire five-year professional footb ...

play in the

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

East–West All-Star game in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, on December 8, 1956.

Death

DeMarco, along with Roughriders teammates, Becket, Sturtridge, and

Ray Syrnyk Raymond Nicholas "Ray" Syrnyk, (1934 – December 9, 1956) was a professional Canadian football player, and was one of 62 people who died on Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810. Syrnyk played professionally for the Saskatchewan Roughriders as a ro ...

, were passengers on

with another CFL player, Calvin Jones, of the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fie ...

. All five players were present at the

East–West All-Star game in

, and were headed back to their respective teams' home cities. The five players were accompanied by 54 other passengers, and 3 crew members who all lost their lives in Western Canada's worst aviation disaster on December 9, 1956. The crash is the subject of the 2012 documentary ''The Crash of Flight 810'', part of TSN's ''Engraved on a Nation'' series of eight documentaries celebrating the 100th Grey Cup.

Legacy

Since

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

, in memory of DeMarco and his teammate Mel Becket, the WIFU and its successor, the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

, have annually awarded the DeMarco-Becket Memorial Trophy to the most outstanding lineman in the West Division.

References

Sources

Pro-Football Reference.com Profile – Mario DeMarco
* CFL Facts & Figures. 2009 Edition. All-Time Division All-Star List on page 227. {{DEFAULTSORT:DeMarco, Mario 1924 births 1956 deaths American football offensive linemen American players of Canadian football Boonton High School alumni Canadian football offensive linemen Detroit Lions players Edmonton Elks players Miami Hurricanes football players Montreal Alouettes players Saskatchewan Roughriders players People from Boonton, New Jersey Players of American football from New Jersey Sportspeople from Morris County, New Jersey American people of Italian descent Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Canada Accidental deaths in British Columbia Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1956