La Salle College High School Football: In Retrospect NOTE: This is the eleventh of, I hope, many retrospectives highlighting some unique history of the football program at La Salle. The topics to discuss seem endless at this time. Hope you enjoy these. Bill Wasylenko, ‘69 Issue Number Eleven: In This Corner – Vince Zizak ‘30 La Salle has had a limited number of players make it into the NFL. Recent football parent George Winslow ‘82 punted for the Browns and the Saints in the late 80’s. The late Gus Cifelli ’43, lineman from Notre Dame, was drafted by the Detroit Lions, and also played with the Packers and Steelers before finishing up with the Eagles in 1954. And Ken “Cy” Simendinger ‘18 played in two games for the Hartford Blues in 1926, nailing a 66 yard punt in his NFL “cup of coffee”. So we had two punters and one lineman. But, according to Ted Silary’s site, La Salle had a fourth player make the big time. And our fourth NFL player was Vince Zizak. Here is the story of Vince Zizak, lineman from La Salle, Villanova, and the NFL, and also professional wrestling! Vincenzo Zizak was born in August of 1908, and grew up in Camden. His parents emigrated from a region in Eastern Europe known at the time as Dalmatia; most of this early information on Vince’s life is spotty, anyway (wink!). Vince was the oldest of 6 children; the closest to him in age was his brother Peter. Vince went on to college at Villanova, and played football for the legendary Harry Stuhldreher, one of Notre Dame’s fabulous Four Horsemen of 1924. And Vince had some great successes at Villanova, as recorded in their 1934 yearbook “Belle Air”. Here are some of the excerpts (Vince’s last name throughout his football career was alternately spelled “Zizak” and “Zizac”: WEST CHESTER: The first game of the season. Everyone waiting to see what the boys are going to do this year, and hoping that they'll win the National Championship, but doubting it. The kickoff opens the game — first kickoff of the year, too; and the teams go in to action. Vince Zizak scores the first points of the season. A safety in the first four minutes of the game. BUCKNELL: Vince Zizac opened the game by blocking Sitarsky's punt after the first exchange of kicks, and the official ball-hawk, Don Blanchard, fell on the ball. The football team of our senior year promised to be just about the best of them during our college days, and the mainstays of it were from among us. Whitey Randour was Captain, and one of the best halfbacks in the country. He was picked by several of the All- America boards, and was unanimously picked as the best in the East. His scoring led the backs of the major Eastern colleges for the 1933 season. Toby Cavanaugh was quarter, and all of us who saw him play this season, and cheered our throats raw at the Temple game, will always remember him as the coolest man on the field; and the headiest field- general that any college ever had the luck to have running their ball-club. Vince Zizac, the Grizzly Bear of Fedigan, stood as a medium sized rock wall for opposing backs to wear themselves down on, and Tom O'Donnell and several others played the season's string out as members of our last team. So Vince Zizak played well enough at Villanova to get a shot at the NFL with the Chicago Bears in the fall of 1934 after graduation. And, because he graduated from college in 1934, it was assumed that he graduated from La Salle College High School in 1930. But, if you do the math, that means he graduated high school as he was approaching his 22nd birthday! Well, unfortunately, La Salle did not publish yearbooks from 1929 to 1933, so there’s no graduation picture to easily find. But, the 1928 edition of the “Blue and Gold” offers some clues. The 1927 team was a great one by early La Salle standards, going 4-1-0 in the Catholic League, with an overall record of 5-3-0. Their one regular season loss was to St. Joseph’s Prep, and La Salle played an end-of-season title game against Catholic High, who they defeated in the regular season, 7-0. La Salle’s chance of their first-ever Catholic League football championship would have to wait another 28 years, as the Cahillites drubbed La Salle, 26-0, to capture the championship. It was bad enough that La Salle lost so convincingly to Catholic High, but they were also banned from the Catholic League for using two Jewish players from South Philly on their 1927 team!! They re-entered the Catholic League in 1934. There were some articles in the 1928 yearbook about certain games from the 1927 season that were extracted from local newspapers. Here’s one of them: So Zizak is listed as playing in the first game of the 1927 season while La Salle was still in the Catholic League. But which Zizak? As you can see in the top row of the Class picture for the Sophomore “A” class of 1928, there are two Zizaks in the same class! It is logical to assume that Vince was the one who played football, and P. Zizak was his younger brother, Peter. Remember that Vince was about 20 in his sophomore year! Here’s a blowup of Vince from this picture: Vince Zizak, Soph Year, 1928 And football and basketball-playing Vince indeed was mentioned in the writeup of the Sophomore “A” class: And in this picture of the 1927 team offense, it certainly looks like Vince at center: The La Salle College High School Football Team of 1927; Vince Zizak at center So, let’s logically assume that Vince Zizak excelled on the football field during his Junior and Senior years at La Salle, but his exploits were not in Catholic League games, and no yearbook was printed to note them as well. So Vince went on to Villanova, and had a successful career there. And, beyond Villanova, lay the National Football League. In 1934, the NFL was just a few years away from their first official draft in 1936. The first draft pick ever was made by our Philadelphia Eagles, and they selected All-American quarterback Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago, the first Heisman Trophy winner. The Eagles traded their rights to Berwanger to the Chicago Bears, but Berwanger could not come to terms with the Bears, and became a businessman instead; he never played pro football. But Vince Zizak did. He signed with the Chicago Bears for the 1934 season. He is listed in the Pro Football Encyclopedia as a guard and tackle, 5’-8” tall, weighing 208 lbs. But Zizak played only two games for the Bears before they traded him to our Philadelphia Eagles, where he played in the remaining 6 games in 1934. The Bears went on to a perfect 13-0 regular season, but lost to the New York Giants in the famous “Sneakers” game for the NFL Championship. The Eagles muddled along at 4-7-0. Zizak played only 4 games for the Birds in 1935, perhaps due to an injury. He played in a career-high 10 games in 1936 for the Eagles, who were progressively getting worse, going 1-11-0 in 1936. The Eagles were terrible on the field, but at least they had a dirty reputation, and our man Zizak had a hand in that Eagle “aura” in a game in 1936 (extracted from a biography of Bert Bell): In just another great football coincidence, George Vergara played for Notre Dame in 1922 and 1923; his teammate both years was Harry Stuhldreher, Vince Zizak’s coach at Villanova! Vince Zizak perhaps had an ornery disposition to start, or maybe he picked it up in his off- season profession between the 1935 and 1936 seasons. Because Vince became a professional wrestler, with several matches documented in Camden during the early months of 1936. Here are some reports noting the results of those matches: Camden, New Jersey: Thursday, January 23, 1936 (Camden Armory) … Ernie Dusek b. Al Bisignano (2-0) (Dusek worked as a heel, working fans into a fever, and, after the match, fans began to riot) (one fan punched the referee) … George Koverly b. Mike Mazurki (13:52) … Vic Christy and Joe Cox drew (30:00) … John Katan b. Laverne Baxter (7:50) … Vince Zizac b. Ernie Stevens (9:46) … (4,500 fans) Note: The Philadelphia Inquirer stated that Zizac was a “former Villanova and Eagle gridiron great.” Camden, New Jersey: Thursday, January 30, 1936 (Camden Armory) … Ernie Dusek b. George Koverly (2/3) … Joe Cox b. John Katan … Fred Grubmier b. Karl Van Wurden (8:04) … Jack Donovan and Dr. Len Hall drew (30:00) … Vince Zizac b. Al Taprof (7:17) (Taprof was a substitute for Jim Kendrick who passed away the day before) … (5,500 fans) Note: According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “the fans paid silent tribute for one minute before the final match got under way” in memory of Jim Kendrick. Camden, New Jersey: Thursday, February 6, 1936 (Camden Armory) … Ernie Dusek b. Sergei Kalmikoff (2-0) (second fall by DQ when Kalmikoff attacked the referee) … Joe Cox b. Fred Grubmier (22:47) … Vic Christy b. Harry Finkelstein (11:07) … Laverne Baxter and Marshall drew (30:00) … Vince Zizac b.