Sisto Averno

Sisto Joseph "Joe" Averno (May 12, 1925 – March 26, 2012) was an American professional football guard and linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the original Baltimore Colts and the franchises which succeeded it, including the New York Yanks (1951), Dallas Texans (1952), and the second iteration of the Baltimore Colts (1953–1954).

Averno is a member of the Muhlenberg College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Averno was born May 12, 1925, in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Robert Averno and his wife.

He attended Central High School in Paterson, where he played football, where he earned three letters as a tackle for the Central High Colts. During his 1942 senior season he received honorable mention for the New Jersey All-State football team. While in the military he played for the 1944 Fleet City Bluejackets football team.

During 15 months of sea duty aboard small craft, Averno collected two theater medals, a Philippine liberation medal, and several battle stars. Averno later regarded this 28–25 victory as among his greatest thrills of college football. and a leg injury in 1948 that required hospitalization. Averno had one surgery during his college years associated with these injuries, for repair of torn cartilage.

Professional career

In the days before massive television money and massive player contracts, NFL players generally worked in jobs unrelated to football in the off-season. Averno sold cars. Averno joined the first iteration of the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League (NFL) as an undrafted free agent in 1950.

The 1950 season was the last for the original Colts franchise for financial reasons. The team's players were distributed throughout the league by reentry into the 1951 NFL draft, with Averno among them. He would play one exhibition game for the Browns against the College All-Stars in Chicago that August before being traded to the New York Yanks for a future draft pick. That campaign would be the last for the troubled franchise, assets of which were sold to a new ownership group based in Dallas. The new club, initially identifying itself as the Dallas Rebels before deciding upon the moniker "Texans," advanced a contract to Averno for the 1952 season in May, which the lineman deemed satisfactory and signed.

Averno played middle guard — essentially nose tackle in a five man defensive front — for the Texans in 1952, starting 11 of the team's 12 games in that position. Averno would start at (defensive) middle guard in all 12 of the team's games of its inaugural season. But as the new season began, little injuries began to pile up, including an aggravated calf strain. On October 15, after just three games of the season, Averno was released by the Colts, who picked up former Washington Redskin Gene Pepper to fill his roster space. At the age of 29, Averno's professional football career was over.

During his five year professional football career never made more than $9,500 in a season (about $107,000 in 2024 terms), with $4,000 starting pay starting pay as a rookie in 1950. He was sanguine about this economic reality, telling a friendly journalist early in 1952, "Linemen don't get as much money as the backs. The guards and tackles do the brunt of the work but have to take second place to the fellows who carry the ball. But that's how it is and we have to accept it."

In 1953, as his career was nearing a close, Averno told a friendly journalist with The Baltimore Sun: "It's a tough racket, this pro football, but I love it. That's what makes playing in Baltimore such a pleasure — it's like a college town. They cheer you whether you win or lose and give you all the encouragement you need.... I like the comradeship and the actual thrill of tackling and blocking in a game. All that makes up for the tough training grind we have to put in each year. That's the worst curse of pro football. The game is great, but oh, the training."

Death Averno died March 26, 2012, in Randallstown, Maryland, at age 86.

Legacy Averno's college football career earned him induction into the Muhlenberg College Athletic Hall of Fame.