GINO Cappelletti, an original member of the Boston Patriots, passed away on May 12, 2022. He was 89 years old. The famed Patriots player was a wide receiver and placekicker for the team in 1960 and earned the American Football League’s 1964 Most Valuable Player award. Who was Gino Cappelletti? Gino Cappelletti had no football […]
GINO Cappelletti, an original member of the Boston Patriots, passed away on May 12, 2022. He was 89 years old.
The famed Patriots player was a wide receiver and placekicker for the team in 1960 and earned the American Football League’s 1964 Most Valuable Player award.
Gino Cappelletti had no football prospects before the AFL was formed.
He had played football briefly in Canada and served in the US Army, but his true joy of playing the game didn’t come to fruition until 1959.
He had just moved back to his home in Minnesota when something happened to change the future of football – the American Football League was formed.
When he heard a new league was formed, he called the Boston Patriots head coach Lou Saban and asked to try out.
Cappelletti went up against 125 other Patriots hopefuls and earned the spot of a kicker and defensive back.
Although he quickly became a star on the field, kicking 30 extra points, scoring eight field goals, catching one pass, while intercepting four.
“Our teams weren’t about one or two big stars,” Cappelletti told the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2021.
“We were about the team and that’s it. It was a tough situation back in 1960 when the AFL was just starting, but we had great people and those early teams were important to football in New England.”
Alongside Jim Otto and George Blanda, Gino Cappelletti was one of the three to play in every game during the league’s 10-year history.
He became only the second player to be inducted into the Patriot’s Hall of Fame in 1992 and after retiring from the league in 1970, he moved to the broadcast booth where he worked from 1972 to 1978.
Cappelletti took a break from broadcast to be a special teams coach from 1979 to 1981.
Following his brief sideline coaching career, Cappelletti returned to the booth in 1988 to voice the Patriots games up until 2011.
Cappelletti passed away at his home on the morning of May 12 surrounded by family.
His cause of death has not yet been released and he leaves behind a long legacy with the football league.
Patriots chairman and CEO, Robert Kraft, said in a statement, “My heart aches after learning of Gino Cappelletti’s passing this morning.
“For the first 51 years of this franchise’s history, Gino contributed as an all-star player, assistant coach, and broadcaster. You couldn’t be a Patriots fan during that era and not be a fan of Gino’s.”
Kraft added, “As great of a player as he was, he was an even better person and storyteller. On behalf of my family and the entire Patriots organization, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Gino’s wife, Sandy, their three daughters, Gina, Cara, and Christina, and their 10 grandchildren, as well as the many others who will be mourning his loss.”
