Joe Spagna
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[edit] Biography
Joe Spagna (Joseph Spagna) was born on May 15, 1897 in New York, New York. After going to high school at Avon (MA), Spagna attended Brown University and Lehigh University. Spagna made his professional debut in the APFA in 1920 with the Cleveland Tigers. He played in the APFA for 2 years, playing for the Buffalo All-Americans and Cleveland Tigers over the course of his 2 year APFA career.Spagna also played in the NFL for 2 years, playing for the Frankford Yellow Jackets the entire time. Spagna also played in the AFLG for 1 year, playing for the Philadelphia Quakers the entire time.
Most people believe that 1924 was Joe Spagna's best year, as he ran back a fumble for a touchdown.
[edit] Statistics
[edit] Trivia
Spagna is also rumored to have hastened the end of Jim Thorpe's football career, with a particularly hard tackle that sent Thorpe to the hospital, in a game between the Massillon (OH) Tigers and Thorpe's Canton Bulldogs, shortly after Spagna's Lehigh career ended in 1919. Newspaper coverage of the game indicated that Thorpe declared that he would shift his energies toward professional baseball shortly after the injury scare.
