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Joe Faragalli Edit Profile

assistant coach Football player

Joe Faragalli was a gridiron football player and coach who had most of his success in the Canadian Football League.

Career

Faragalli played guard at Villanova University from 1950 to 1953, and was the team captain all four years. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 12th round (138 overall pick) of the 1954 NFL Draft. He served four years in Germany with the United States Army and went on to coach college football in the United States.

Known affectionately throughout the Canadian Football League as "Papa Joe," Faragalli joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1967 as an offensive coach.

Faragalli was replaced by Rueben Berry in 1983 after Saskatchewan got off to a 1-5 start to the season. He began that year as coach of the Montreal Alouettes, but the franchise ceased operations days before the start of the season.

He coached the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1991. During the 1980s, he worked as an assistant coach with the Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Oilers and Buffalo Bills.

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.

Achievements

  • 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. Faragalli"s greatest Canadian Football League coaching achievement, in 1987, almost never happened. After Jackie Parker resigned as Edmonton Eskimos coach two games into the year due to health reasons, Faragalli was hired and led the team to a Grey Cup win against the Toronto Argonauts. The Eskimos played in the 1990 Grey Cup game under Faragalli, but lost to Winnipeg.