Gino Marchetti, one of the star players of the Colts championship teams in 1958 and 1959, died on Monday.
Marchetti had pneumonia and died with his wife Joan by his side at a hospital in Pennsylvania. He was 93 years old.
“I kissed him and he knew me and smiled,” Joan Marchetti told the Baltimore Sun. “That was Gino’s way of saying goodbye.”
Marchetti served in the U.S. Army during World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He went to the University of San Francisco and was drafted in 1952 by the New York Yanks, who became the Dallas Texans that year and made the move to Baltimore in 1953. Marchetti would play defensive end for the team through 1966 and was named an All-Pro every year from 1956 to 1964.
Former Lions quarterback Bobby Layne said being hit by Marchetti was “like running into a tree trunk in the dark” and plenty of other quarterbacks found themselves on the receiving end of hits by one of the league’s most feared pass rushers.
Marchetti was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972 and was named a member of the NFL’s 50th and 75th Anniversary teams. The league will name a 100th Anniversary team this year and Marchetti should be on it.
Our condolences go out to his widow, the Marchetti family and his loved ones on their loss.
