#48 Chuck Landolfi

Longtime Ellwood City Memories supporter Bob Mallary asked Ernie Young what he knew about Chuck Landolfi as Mr. Mallary had moved from the area prior to Mr. Landolfi’s playing career blossomed. I have wanted to make a post about #48 for a while but only had small little tidbits of information. This morning, I got onto the website and seen a lengthy comment from Mr. Young and after seeing the topic, I want to thank him for keeping it relatively short as I am sure he could have written page after page. Who better to write the post than his good friend of sixty years…

    “I believe Charlie (Landolfi) was the first football player at Ellwood to have his number retired (at the end of the 1964 season). At Lincoln he gain around 2300 yards. He would’ve had more but didn’t play offense except for the last two games our sophomore year. He was a third team All-State pick our senior year. He was a first team pick by the WPIAL. He was also picked to play in the Big 33 Game when it was still played against a Big 33 Team from Texas. Believe me, there were other accolades that I can’t remember (including leading the WPIAL in points his senior year with 78 points).

    He then was recruited by several Division one colleges like Miami, Kentucky, West Point, and Penn State to name a few. He finally settled on Notre Dame where he was really doing well until he broke his leg, very badly during his sophomore year. He just never bounced back from that. He lost his ability to run in the open field, but he scored a lot of points from inside the twenty, because he never lost his power running ability. During his time at ND he became the Notre Dame Heavy Weight Boxing Champion. I believe he got that ability from his Mom’s side of the family.

He was not drafted, but signed a free agent contract with The Chicago Bears but didn’t last. In my opinion, his leg and the fact, at that level, football was no longer fun for him caused his departure. He went on to teach and coach in high school and even played on some semi-pro teams in the area. Later he got involved in the computer business.

     There’s a funny boxing story told when we’re altogether. All meaning, a lot of the guys we played ball with at Lincoln. There are about twelve of us who are still very close friends after all these years. Back to the story; Al Agostinelli wanted Charlie to get in the ring with some guy from Youngstown. That never happened for one reason or another, but later it was learned, when the guy became a contender for the heavy weight crown, he was Ernie Shavers. We laugh each time that story is told and Charlie always says the same thing, “Beno (Al’s nickname) wanted to get me killed”…!!!

    A personal note of Charlie, as I wrote earlier he was a load to bring down. He was strong and could turn on the after burners when he was loose in the open field in high school. He would tell me, the after burners would kick in when the fear of being caught from behind would take him over. I tell people all the time, when the subject comes up, I was glad that I was on his team and didn’t have to play against him. Even at practice I was never on the other side of the line and thankful for that also. Offensive practice I was blocking for him and when defensive practice was called we were on the same unit. Believe me, I was glad with the position I was in.

      Charlie has been my friend for sixty of my sixty-five years. He has been loyal and true. That is something my Mom saw in him early on in our friendship, and she was right. His friendship is one I treasure.

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