Remembering Dick Malacrea And Bob Casciola

TigerBlog starts today with the sad news of the recent passing of two legends in Princeton Athletics history.

Former head football coach Bob Casciola (1973-77) and longtime head athletic trainer Dick Malacrea both passed away within the last two weeks. Together they lived 181 years (Dick was 92; Bob, 89), though it was still sad to see the news.

This is from the obituary for Malacrea. TB isn't sure who wrote it; he does know it is spot on.

Dick was the consummate professional, equally dedicated to excellence in the care of each individual as well as advancing the state-of-art for the athletic training profession. 

Malacrea came along at a time when athletic training was in the midst of a major advancement, and he was at the forefront. He attended West Chester University for his undergraduate and graduate work, and he went into athletic training after a tryout with the Phillies and a stint in the United States Army.

As for Bob Casciola, these are the kinds of things you want in your own obituary:

Some of his many honors include All-Ivy League team selection, a Heisman Scholarship award from the Downtown Athletic Club, named "Person of the Year" by the New Jersey Tournament of Champions, the 2004 Distinguished American Award by NFF, and Delaware Valley Chapter. The Delaware Valley Chapter named their Distinguished American Award after him.

Casciola was a three-year starter as a two-way lineman for the Princeton football team, in 1955-57, when he played for the great Charles Caldwell in his first two years and the great Dick Colman in his senior year. How many players have ever had the chance to play for two Hall of Fame coaches?

Casciola wore No. 70 for the Tigers and weighed what at the time was a lot: all of 210 pounds. In fact, here are the weights of the starters on the line from 1956: 210, 220, 180, 195, 190. Imagine that today? 

Princeton went 7-2 in each of his three seasons on the varsity. The 1957 team went 6-1 and won the first Ivy League championship in program history, and Casciola was named first-team All-Ivy, one year after being a second-team selection on the first-ever All-Ivy team.

One week after falling to Yale, Princeton came back to beat unbeaten Dartmouth 34-14 at Palmer Stadium to gain its piece of the title. This was how the Daily Princetonian story began:

It was a Princeton team that all season long had been expected to run roughshod through the Ivy Group, but because of numerous unfortunate happenings had never been quite able to realize its fulr potential.' However, there was no denying the Orange and Black on Saturday as they completely bottled up their unbeaten opposition from Hanover to take the much-deserved championship. With captain Jack Sapoch and senior tackle Bob Casciola softening up the Indians with their vicious blocks and crushing tackles, sophomore tailback Danny Sachs supplied the KO blows by tallying three touchdowns and passing for a fourth in, the 34-14 rout. 

Casciola's post-Princeton career was spent largely in the sport at which he excelled beyond his coaching career, especially with his time with the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame and as a television commentator.

You can read more about Dick Malacrea HERE and Bob Casciola HERE.

TigerBlog knew both men. They both had a very imposing presence.

If you were ever in Dick Malacrea's training room, you definitely knew who was in charge. If you ever got a call from Bob Casciola about a project that was important to him, you knew that he was going to pursue it with all the passion in his body.

There aren't too many people here now who knew them first hand, or for that matter have even heard of them.

They were loyal, big-hearted men who valued so much the student-athletes who competed here and what the athletic department and Princeton represented. 

TigerBlog sends his best to both of their families.