Cappelletti's 30 Year Old Tribute Has Something For Everyone

This, from a time when sports produced real heroes and real men. John was a humble, giving, tough as nails football player who was, and remains a complete class act. It's obvious that his story has touched many, many hearts over the years, and anyone that reads this speech and doesn't feel something isn't quite human.

Here is the actual text from John's speech:

"A week ago, or ten days ago, when the Heisman Trophy was announced, I hadn’t had too much time to think about what it has meant. I think listening to former Heisman Trophy winners tonight and seeing everyone here to share in it and congratulate me on it is one of the first steps I have taken in the meaning of this trophy. I’m sure that the people behind me know much more than I do, and I’m happy for any advice they have given me tonight on what to expect from the future with this trophy.

I have had time to think about some of the things that have put me up here tonight, things that have happened in my life and I’d like to reflect on them now.

I think the first thing that happened is that God blessed me with a great deal of talent and a lot of people to compliment that talent. My family, as everyone has, mostly I guess, are great people and I’m very happy to have shared in my lifetime with them. My brothers and sisters have been wonderful. Just being with them the past few years, they have always been behind me and I can’t express that enough.

My mother and father - there isn’t a greater couple around. I know my mother always cries at these affairs, so I want to try not to. She’s a very, very strong woman and dedicated, not only to her children and husband but also to God, and I think this helped her out with putting up with us and going through all she has gone through. I think one small example of this, a personal thing with me that I think a lot of people may have noticed, is that my legs are straight as arrows and I have no trouble walking now, or running, but one time in my life I couldn’t walk without tripping. My mother not only brought me through this, but she brought just about every member of our family through something like this.

My father is a very quiet man; he’s been a great father to all of us. He asked me the other day when I was home what I thought of him as a father. I wouldn’t say much to him then because it’s hard to express things like that, but there is no greater person I have more respect for than this man.

I think the next event that was most important to me in my life was when I went to high school and I was fortunate enough to be coached by a man who dedicated himself, not only to his players on the field, but very much so off the field. He’s a great lover of football. He’d sacrifice anything for a teammate or a player when he was playing and when he was coaching. He passed away this summer, Jack Gottshalk, but I think in the 43 years he was on this earth, he did more for young people and people he was associated with than most of us get a chance to do in our lifetime.

The next step, I think, was going to Penn State. It was a hard decision making a choice of colleges. At the time, I didn’t know much about it, but I think the one thing that swayed me was the man sitting to my right, and that is Coach Paterno. When I was being recruited, he came down to my house. I think he was not only on a recruiting trip, but he was looking for a good meal, an Italian meal. When he came in the door, he looked over, and on the couch was my brother, Joseph, lying there. He was very ill at the time, more so than usual, and instead of - that is no joke - Coach Paterno was more concerned and talked more about what he could do for my brother than what he could do to get me at Penn State. For this, I am very thankful, and I’m glad I had the chance to show some appreciation to this man the past four years.

I think everyone here knows mostly about his coaching accomplishments at Penn State. His record is a great one, probably the greatest in the country. He has carried on a great tradition at Penn State, I think, which started with Rip Engle. He’s more concerned with young people after they get out of school than when they are in school; what he can do for them to make better lives for them not only on the football field, but in life itself.

I think Vice President Ford said, ‘You can’t compare life to a football game but you can compare a football game to life’, and I think this is what he (Paterno) has tried to show us in my four years there and in the years he has been coaching and teaching. I don’t think there is a more dedicated man anywhere concerned with young people and a better teacher of life on and off the field.

The next group of people I’m going to talk about, I’ve been with for four years and I’ve played with them. They are my teammates, this year, the seniors and co-captains whom you have met down here. I don’t think I have ever been closer to a group of people who I’ve worked with, sweated with, and done more with in four years than with anybody else in my lifetime. I don’t think I could have gotten any closer to the group than I have been with and I think that it takes a lot of hard work to do what we’ve done this year. I’m just glad that I did my part for my teammates and that we’ve had the season we’ve had, the closeness that we’ve had, and for them I’m thankful just for that.

Also, there is a coach here tonight who I am very proud of. He’s our backfield coach at Penn State. His name is Bob Phillips. I think he’s mainly responsible for a lot of the attitude that goes on at Penn State among the players. He’s a very dedicated man to his work, but he goes about it with a healthy and bright attitude. He relays this to the players to the point where you want to do things for him and you take the attitude that you are not out there just to get finished and go in and take a shower, but you are out there to accomplish something. People like him are the reason that I think a lot of the players, and I know myself, were out there this year doing the things we did, and I’d like to thank him for that.

(tearfully)

The next part - I’m very happy to do something like this - I thought about since the Heisman was announced ten days ago, and this is to dedicate a trophy that a lot of people have earned, I’ve earned, my parents and all the people I’ve mentioned and numerous other people that are here tonight and (have) been with me for a long time.

The youngest member of my family, Joseph, is very ill. He has leukemia. If I can dedicate this trophy to him tonight and give him a couple of days of happiness, this is worth everything. I think a lot of people think that I go through a lot on Saturdays and during the week as most athletes do, and you get your bumps and bruises and it is a terrific battle out there on the field. Only for me it is on Saturdays and it’s only in the fall. For Joseph it is all year round and it is a battle that is unending with him and he puts up with much more than I’ll ever put up with, and I think this trophy is more his than mine because he has been a great inspiration to me.

I’d just like to thank everyone here tonight for putting up with me, the Downtown Athletic Club for having this affair and the way they’ve treated myself, my parents and guests from Penn State the past few days. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this night."

shameless self-bump...

But no one ever gave a speech like John Cappelletti did on Dec. 13, 1973.

That was winter term of my senior year.
(PSU was on a quarterly trimester system back then.)
Handheld calculators were new, but strictly verboten for quizes and exams since they were too expensive and considered unfair to students who couldn't afford 'em. I didn't buy my first one ($200) until I entered grad school the following year. Cappy was a member of FIJI, where my younger brother was a pledge. I didn't really know him, but met him at a couple parties.

Dang I'm gettin' old. Doesn't seem that long ago.

I graduated 3 years before you.
While at PSU I had the chance to meet a number of football players; Jack Ham used to play in our pickup bb games in Pollack, Franco Harris used to join in our poker game in west Hall, Charlie Pittman was in a lot of my accounting classes, and Mike Reid used to be in Rec Hall a lot of times when we went to play handball (gloves & ball were free). About half of the o-line were meteorology majors & were proctors during some of my exams (elective science course). The players never had their own dorm & were a part of the student body, not just jocks.

Cappelletti was a perfect role model. I wish we had more like him today.

He was certainly special. You're right, we need more like him today.

Selfishly, I wish more people here would take the time to read this thread and maybe take something from it.

The book "Something For Joey" is invaluable in teaching our children. The movie, while it was a TV movie and not technically perfect, is still a tear-jerker that rivals Brian's Song.

Maybe since Hollyweird loves to re-do old stuff, they could take the time to re-do this story. The story is not only legendary, but timeless as well.

The players never had their own dorm & were a part of the student body, not just jocks.

Well yes and no. They didn't have an official dorm of their own. But the majority did have a tendency to live in West Halls or the frats near Rec Hall. I spent two years in East Halls, one in an apartment off-campus, one in the old Nittany dorms and my grad years in Atherton. (not counting the odd summers I rented a room in a frat or in town.)

Franco was pretty easy to spot walking across campus, but I most remember Lydell Mitchell working out on the rings in the South Gym of Rec Hall on a Saturday night after winning a home game. Everybody else is out partying and drinking, and there's old Lydell "relaxing" doing Iron Crosses and other gymnastics stuff.

Lydell Mitchell & Franco Harris - 2 future Pro FB Hall of Famers in the same backfield. Those were the days. JoPa's first year as head coach was my freshman year.
I spent 1 year in Hartranft, moved to an apt. - in College Arms, and finished in an apt. in Beaver Terrace. We partied a lot & let all the frat guys bring their dates (girls had to be out of the frats by 11 or 12), $1 for guys - girls were no charge. We had an open invitation to about 40 frats because of our "after hours" parties.

(girls had to be out of the frats by 11 or 12)

Good grief, are you SURE you graduated only 3 years ahead of me?
I don't know of ANY fraternities that would have abided by that rule.
In fact, during my freshmen year (70~71) even the women's dorms had 24-hour "visitation".
Yeah, you had to have an escort and sign a sheet to get in after a certain time of evening. But(LOL!), while I may have been "living" in East Halls at the time, that doesn't necessarily mean I always slept there.

;^)