Remembering Joe Taffoni
Carmichaels graduate Joe Taffoni is shown during his playing days at West Virginia. (Submitted photo)
Cleveland Browns players (from left) Joe Taffoni, Gene Hickerson, Fred Hoaglin, John Demarie and Dick Schafrath pose for a photo in 1971. Taffoni, a Carmichaels graduate, died on July 6 at the age of 76. (Submitted photo)
Area sports fans were saddened with the news that one of the best football players to come out of Greene County, Joe Taffoni, passed away at the age of 76 on July 26 in Chapin, South Carolina after a two-year battle with Primary CNS Lymphoma.
Taffoni, an outstanding athlete at Cumberland High School (now Carmichaels), also played at West Virginia, the University of Tennessee at Martin and six seasons in the National Football League.
Taffoni was featured in a Memory Lane article in 2008. Here are some excerpts from that column.
Football played a major role in Joe Taffoni蘑菇视频 life, as a high school player, college player, pro player, college coach and high school coach.
Taffoni was an outstanding athlete at Cumberland High School in the early 1960s 鈥� excelling at football and baseball and running track. He was on football squads that posted records of 6-3 in 1959, 1-8 in 1960, 6-3 in 1961 and 9-0-1 in 1962.
鈥淲e were very competitive in football,鈥� Taffoni recalled. 鈥淲e won the WPIAL championship in 1962. We went undefeated and we played Rostraver and we actually tied 0-0. We played at Uniontown High School stadium and the conditions were very bad 鈥� there must have been about three feet of mud in there. It was unbelievable, everybody was covered in mud and you couldn鈥檛 even see the numbers.鈥�
Fred Stuvek coached Cumberland Township and Taffoni has some fond memories of his old coach.
鈥淗e was a tough disciplinarian,鈥� Taffoni recalled. 鈥淲e had really hard practices, he was a no-nonsense guy and a real tough mentor.鈥�
Taffoni captured All-State and All-County honors in football. He played fullback and defensive tackle and played in the 1963 Big 33 game. He was also a talented catcher in baseball and was pursued by several pro teams.
鈥淚 could have signed a baseball contract out of high school,鈥� he revealed. 鈥淭he baseball back then in the area was excellent. I played for the Carmichaels American Legion team and we played in the state championship game. Everybody that was on my high school football team played baseball and we played in the American Legion state championships in Allentown, Pa.
鈥淚 could have signed a pro contract, but my dad wanted me to go to college. The Pirates, Cubs and the Reds all tried to get me to sign a baseball contract.鈥�
Taffoni graduated from Carmichaels in 1963 (they changed the name to Carmichaels High School that school year) and a lot of schools came calling with scholarship offers.
鈥淚 took 13 trips to visit different schools,鈥� he reported. 鈥淏ack then you didn鈥檛 have limitations on the number of trips you could take. I went to Notre Dame, Tennessee, Arizona State, Miami and Ohio State.
鈥淢y high school coach went to West Virginia and he played with Gene Corum who was the Mountaineers head coach. I was going to be a dentist and they gave me an eight-year scholarship and I chose WVU. With it being close to home that was part of it because my parents wanted to see me play.鈥�
Taffoni was a part of some talented teams at WVU with the likes of fullback Dick Leftridge, quarterback Allen McCune and 6-foot-5 end Bob Dunlevy. In 1964 the Mountaineers produced a solid 7-3 mark before a loss to Utah in the Liberty Bowl.
鈥淭he Liberty Bowl was the first indoor bowl game ever,鈥� Taffoni explained. 鈥淚t was played indoors at the revamped Atlantic City, N.J. Convention Center; the bowl game attracted a national television audience. But Utah had a tremendous passing attack featuring end Roy Jefferson and Utah won 32-6.鈥�
WVU forged its ticket to the bowl game by upsetting Sugar Bowl-bound Syracuse, 28-27, after trailing 21-7 at halftime in the season蘑菇视频 finale.
In 1965 the Mountaineers posted a 6-4 record, including a memorable 63-48 win over arch-rival Pitt.
鈥淚t was crazy,鈥� Taffoni laughed. 鈥淚t was like a track meet.鈥�
Following the 1965 season WVU dismissed coach Corum and replaced him with Jim Carlen.
鈥淲e had a problem after our coaches got fired,鈥� Taffoni said. 鈥淚 was elected captain of the team and I transferred to Tennessee-Martin. I only played one year at Tennessee-Martin and I knew I was going to get drafted and Coach Carlen called every day wanting me to come back, but I had missed a semester and they wanted me to sit out a year and I didn鈥檛 want to do that.
鈥淚t was a good experience and we had a real good team down there that was made up of a bunch of Division-I transfers and we had four guys drafted off that team.鈥�
Taffoni was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fourth round of the NFL draft.
鈥淚 was in Cleveland for four years and then Blanton Collier retired and Nick Skorich came in to coach, and I didn鈥檛 like him and asked to be trade and was sent to the New York Giants and played there for three years.鈥�
Taffoni was a part of some outstanding teams with the Browns.
鈥淲e were very good,鈥� said Taffoni who played guard and tackle. 鈥淔our out of the five years I was there we played for the NFL championship. We had some great players 鈥� Ernie Green, Leroy Kelly, Gary Collins and Paul Warfield.鈥�
The rivalry with the Steelers was intense.
鈥淥h, yeah I don鈥檛 think I ever lost to them (He did suffer one loss to Pittsburgh, 28-9, in 1970). They were always tough games, always tough physical games and the fans were crazy,鈥� Taffoni said.
In his years with the Giants they went 8-6 in 1972 and 2-11-1 in 1973.
鈥淥ne year we just missed the playoffs and one year we had everybody get hurt and we had a real bad year,鈥� Taffoni said. 鈥淲e had some good players 鈥� Bob Tucker, Ron Johnson and Jack Gregory, and we had Fran Tarkenton at quarterback one year and Norm Snead.鈥�
As he looks back, coming so close to championships still sticks out in his mind.
鈥淭hree games stick out,鈥� Taffoni lamented. 鈥淲e missed going to the Super Bowl three times by one game. We lost to Dallas, Baltimore and Minnesota.鈥�
Taffoni retired from pro football in 1974.
鈥淚 then got into college coaching,鈥� he reported. 鈥淚 was at UT-Chattanooga 鈥� I went down there with my old Giants teammate Joe Morrison. I coached there for I guess four or five years and then went into the business world in sales and marketing and was eastern regional manager for a steel company. I retired in March 2008.鈥�
While he was in the business world he coached high school football. Taffoni was offensive coordinator at Holy Cross High School from 1987-2004 and won three state championships and participated in eight state finals. He then became offensive coordinator at Burlington Township High School in 2005-2006. He was offensive coordinator at Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, N.J. for two years before retiring from coaching.
Taffoni had quite a career in high school football in New Jersey. He coached four of the top 10 scoring offenses in South Jersey History. He coached NFL players: Avon Cobourne, Wali Lundy, Kevin Hickman, Kevin Landolt, and Scott Semptimphelter. Taffoni has coached 25 All-South Jersey players and 17 All-State players. He coached and compiled a list of 250 student-athletes who received football scholarships to college.
Former teammates and players Taffoni coached remembered him fondly.
鈥淗e was a good teammate,鈥� former Cumberland High quarterback Bob Atcheson recalled. 鈥淲e went to grade school together and I grew up with him in Nemacolin, Pa. Joe was part of a great offensive line. We ran the football as a power running team. He was a nice guy to be around, we knew each other from first grade all the way through high school.鈥�
鈥淛oe was really a nice guy,鈥� former West Virginia star running back Garrett Ford offered. 鈥淗e was a solid lineman. I thought I had big size, but he was a big guy for that period of football. He was fun to run behind, but he was just a nice person and he was so easy to get along with.鈥�
A former foe in college when he played at Pitt, Fred Hoaglin played with Taffoni on the offensive line with the Cleveland Browns.
鈥淗e was a really tough hard-nosed player,鈥� Hoaglin said. 鈥淗e was a tough competitor and everybody liked him other than the fact he went to West Virginia, as you know I went to Pitt. We had a history, we played against each other in that 63-48 game in 1965. He was really a tough, physical player and he was strong and an excellent run blocker.鈥�
Taffoni had many honors during his football career. While at West Virginia, he was All-Southern Conference and second team All-American. He was named to the WVU All-Decade team for the period 1960-1969. University of Tennessee at Martin elected him into their Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989.
George Von Benko蘑菇视频 鈥淢emory Lane鈥� column appears in the Sunday editions of the 蘑菇视频. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.