Joe Faragalli (April 18, 1929 – April 10, 2006) was a

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

player and coach who had most of his success in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Faragalli played

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at Villanova University from 1950 to 1953, and was the team captain all four years. He was drafted by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

in the 12th round (138th overall pick) of the

1954 NFL Draft The 1954 National Football League Draft was held on January 28, 1954, at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. This was the eighth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick determined by lottery. With the previous seven winners i ...

. He served four years in Germany with the United States Army and went on to coach

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in the United States.

Coaching career

Known affectionately throughout the CFL as "Papa Joe," Faragalli joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1967 as an offensive coach. In 1981, he became head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and was awarded the Annis Stukus Trophy as Coach of the Year; the team, 2–14 in each of the preceding two seasons, finished with a 9–7 record in 1981 (despite this, the team narrowly missed the playoffs). Faragalli was replaced by Reuben Berry in 1983 after Saskatchewan got off to a 1–5 start to the season. Faragalli's greatest CFL coaching achievement, in 1987, almost never happened. He began that year as coach of the Montreal Alouettes, but the franchise ceased operations days before the start of the season. After Jackie Parker resigned as

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

coach two games into the year due to health reasons, Faragalli was hired and led the team to a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

win against the Toronto Argonauts. The Eskimos played in the 1990 Grey Cup game under Faragalli, but lost to Winnipeg. He coached the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

in 1991. After departing from the Eskimos in 1990, he served as the offensive co-ordinator for the World League of American Football's Montreal Machine in 1991 and 1992, in between that one season in Ottawa. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he worked as an assistant coach with the

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 ...

, Houston Oilers,

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and the WLAF's Montreal Machine. His son

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also coached in the CFL. Faragalli died in Narragansett, Rhode Island on April 10, 2006, of heart failure eight days before his 77th birthday and approximately one month before his 50th wedding anniversary.

Head coaching record

CFL

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faragalli, Joe 1929 births 2006 deaths Brown Bears football coaches Buffalo Bills coaches Cincinnati Bengals coaches Edmonton Elks coaches Houston Oilers coaches Marshall Thundering Herd football coaches Montreal Alouettes coaches Oklahoma State Cowboys football coaches Ottawa Rough Riders coaches Saskatchewan Roughriders coaches Villanova Wildcats football players Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaches NFL Europe (WLAF) coaches Sportspeople from Philadelphia Players of American football from Philadelphia United States Army soldiers