NIC-10's 100 Greatest Football Players: No. 69 - Joe Buscemi, West

West lineman Joe Buscemi has one of the more unlikely stories on our list of 100 greatest players.

In junior high school, Buscemi was severely injured in a car accident, and doctors told him he might never be able to play football again. He overcame the injury to play his way onto the 1940 All-Big Eight team for Rockford West, which went 5-2-1 in the first year that it was open.

Buscemi wanted to go to Wisconsin, but Badgers coach Harry Stuhldreher told him he was too small for college football. So Buscemi went to work for 15 months to build himself up enough to make the University of Illinois freshman team in 1942.

Of course, by then the United States was already at war and Buscemi signed up for the U.S. Marines. The Marines enrolled Buscemi in the V-12 College Training Program, which was designed to build the number of commissioned officers for the war effort. More than 130 colleges were part of V-12. Illinois was not one of them so in the fall of 1943 Buscemi transferred to Purdue, which was a V-12 school.

The Boilermakers were coming off their worst season since 1907, scoring only 27 points while going 1-8. In 1943, though, because of the V-12 program, players from 11 other universities were now playing football at Purdue. Purdue rolled to a 9-0 record. That included a 40-21 win over Illinois in which former Illini Buscemi helped open holes for former Illini Tony Butkovich, who rushed for 207 yards.

In 1944 and 1945, Buscemi served in the military. In 1946, with the war over, Buscemi and many of the other Illini returned to Illinois. Only Butkovich didn't make it back. He was killed during the war.

In 1946, Buscemi would team up with Rockford East grad Al Mastrangeli (No. 78 on this list) to anchor the offensive line that blocked for Buddy Young, the first African American star at Illinois. Illinois won what was known as the Western Conference and earned a trip to the 1947 Rose Bowl where they crushed previously undefeated UCLA, 45-14.

Illinois went 5-3-1 in Buscemi's final season, meaning his teams were a combined 22-5-1 in his three years on varsity.

After his college career was over, Buscemi moved to Cincinnati. In 1952, Buscemi was called to active duty for the Korean War. His name didn't appear in the Rockford newspapers again until 2007, when he was among the 17 surviving members of the 1947 Illini Rose Bowl team interviewed after Illinois earned a berth in the 2008 Rose Bowl.

No. 69 - Joe Buscemi, West
Year	Level	School	Accomplishments	Points
1939	High School	Rockford	Losing Team	0
1940	High School	West	First Team All-Conference	2
1942	College	Illinois	Player on Power 5 Freshman Team	2
1943	College	Purdue	Letter Winner on Power 5 Team	4
			Starter	1
			Winning Team	1
			AP Top 5	1
1946	College	Illinois	Letter Winner on Power 5 Team	4
			Starter	1
			Winning Team	1
			Bowl Game	1
1947	College	Illinois	Letter Winner on Power 5 Team	4
			Starter	1
			Winning Team	3.5
Total				24

NIC-10's 100 Greatest Football Players

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