Gino Marchetti, 2-Time NFL Champion, Dies at 92

NFL Hall of Famer Gino Marchetti died Monday from pneumonia, his wife, Joan Marchetti told the Baltimore Sun. He was 92.

“I kissed him and he knew me and smiled,” Joan told the newspaper. “That was Gino’s way of saying goodbye.”

Gino Marchetti played 13 seasons with the Baltimore Colts, winning two championships in 1958 and 1959 (a few years before the first Super Bowl). He played his first season in the NFL with the Dallas Texans, who drafted him in 1952 with the 14th overall pick.

Marchetti also served in the U.S. Army at the Battle of the Bulge as a machine gunner in World War II. After he returned from war, he was selected in the second round of the 1952 NFL Draft.

Colts owner Jim Irsay paid tribute to Marchetti on Twitter, praising him as “one of the greatest to play the game.”

“Rest in peace, Gino Marchetti. The son of immigrants–and a veterans of the Battle of the Bulge against the Nazis–Marchetti was one of the greatest to play the game, Gino was a player who helped turn the nation’s attention toward the ‘new sport’ on television,” Irsay wrote.

The Baltimore Ravens and the Pro Football Hall of Fame also issued statements memorializing the football great.

Former Colts player and coach Don Shula praised Marchetti for “revolutionizing” the game of football — especially his position, defensive end.

“He revolutionized the way you play that position in the NFL,” Shula told the Sun. “Prior to Gino, the attitude [of pass rushers] was to try to physically overpower the offensive tackle. Gino showed that with good instincts and a lightning quickness, he could get around his man without really engaging him.

“The offensive tackle’s uniform never got very dirty, but the quarterback’s sure did.”

Marchetti was also named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, joining players like Deacon Jones and Reggie White. His number, 89, was retired by the Indianapolis Colts, and he’s also a member of the Baltimore Ravens Ring of Honor.

An 11-time Pro Bowler, and a seven-time first-team All-Pro, Marchetti was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.