Career
Wysocki first gained national media attention after an October 1937 game in which he scored 19 of Villanova"s 20 points (three touchdowns and an extra point) in a 20-0 victory over Manhattan. In November 1937, noted sports writer Alan Gould wrote of Wysocki: "Villanova"s sensational John Wysocki, who put on a one man scoring show against Manhattan, had another big afternoon against Detroit." Wysocki was also known as a kick-blocker and had three career touchdowns on blocked kicks. In the 1937 Bacardi Bowl, Villanova was trailing Auburn 7-0 in the fourth quarter, when Wysocki and Valentine Rizzo blocked a kick inside the Auburn 15-yard line, and the kick was recovered by a Villanova lineman for a touchdown that led to the final game score of 7-7.
Wysocki repeated as an All-American in 1938 despite suffering injuries that prevented him from playing a full schedule.
In November 1938, National Education Association syndicate sports editor Harry Grayson said the following of the two-time All-American:
Wysocki was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round (21st pick overall) of the 1939 NFL Draft. However, Wysocki instead took a job as a high school teacher and coach.
Upon graduating in 1939, Wysocki became a teacher and coach of football, basketball and track at Clifton Heights High School in a suburb of Philadelphia. He later became the football and baseball coach and athletic director at Upper Merion High School in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, from 1944-1946.
From 1947-1965, he was a sales representative for a distilling firm.
He lived in his later years in Highland Park, Pennsylvania, and died in Philadelphia"s Osteophathic Hospital at age 49 in 1965. Wysocki was inducted into the Villanova Walk of Fame in 1994.
