Joe Klecko: How Fate Changed My Life … And Sent Me To Canton

(EDITOR’S NOTE: To listen to Joe Klecko, click on the following link: Megaphone: A Modern Podcasting Platform)

Joe Klecko didn’t play football until his senior year of high school … and, even, then, it was only because a teammate was hurt. But now, over 50 years later, he’s in the Temple University Sports Hall of Fame … the New York Jets’ Ring of Honor … and on his way to the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame as a member of its Class of 2023.

What in the world happened?

Easy. Kismet, that’s what.

Growing up in Chester, Pa, Klecko said there was no “early football like Pop Warner.” So he played baseball, and he played it well. But, as a freshman at St. James High, he decided to try out for the football team and immediately found himself in a drill vs. a much bigger upperclassman.

“The coach was a brother,” said Klecko on the latest “Eye Test for Two” podcast. “I went to a Catholic high school – and he said, ‘Get out of there before you get hurt!’ So I was so timid, I quit. I was so embarrassed, and I went home. I come from a working-class neighborhood, and I went to work.”

Now, fast forward to the summer prior to Klecko’s senior year at St. James when he made an unexpected decision that would change his life. He decided to try out for football again.

“To me,” he said, “it was: There’s nobody in the senior class that I can’t beat up, you know? So I said, ‘What the heck, I’m going to go out for football.’ So I went out for football, and it was tough in the beginning.

“I went out to my first game, and I said to my Dad before I was leaving, ‘Dad, I may have a chance to play.’ I came home, and I didn’t play. And my Dad was mad at me. I was like: Oh, my God, I didn’t realize it cut so deep into my father. 

“As the season went along, I played a little bit. But somebody who was in front of me got hurt and I started to play. Well, basically, they couldn’t take me out because of everything I was doing.”

End of story, right? Not exactly. Though he went on to star for his high school, he failed to gain the attention of collegiate football programs. No problem. He simply wouldn’t go. After all, no one in his family attended a college, and he wasn’t about to pay for the experience. So he did what came naturally.

He went back to work, this time driving trucks.

Around Full Press Hockey

NHL: Four Crucial Areas For Maple Leafs The Rest Of This Regular Season

NHL Rumors: NHL Rumors: New Jersey Devils Trade Targets

NHL: NHL All Star Game Thoughts and Possible Changes

NFL: What Eddie Robinson Told Doug Williams After He Made History 35 Years Ago

Full Press Bets: Early 2022 NFL MVP Odds: Bills’ Josh Allen Favored

PODCAST: Full Press Hockey Weekly Ep 45: Canucks, Islanders, and The Boston Bruins

Oddly enough, that’s when he made another crucial decision … and, again, it was to play football. Only this time, it wasn’t a voluntary move. Call it coincidence. Call it good fortune. Whatever it was … kismet? … it changed Klecko’s life.

“I went to a softball game one day,” he said, “and one of the guys who was there was the coach of the Aston (Pa.) Knights (a semi-pro football team), and he said ‘Joe, a lot of the guys come out to play. Why don’t you come out?’ I missed it (football), and I liked it. And I had grown a lot more by now.

“(So) I went out and watched them play. I went out to the practice field. I was with my wife … girlfriend at the time … and I was embarrassed to get out of the car. My wife … girlfriend … took the keys and threw them out the window. I said, ‘Why did you do that?” So I went out to get them, and they see me. So they’re yelling at me: ‘Joe, come on over, come on over.’ I turned back to back to my girlfriend … wife …and gave her that stare. Probably the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And the rest is history.”

Not quite. Klecko played under the alias “Jim Jones” from “Portland University,” then went on to star at Temple. You can’t make this stuff up.

“The owners thought it would be good for me to play under an assumed name,” said Klecko, “because it was a professional league. I never got paid or nothing. And we ran into that problem at Temple where I had to have all the affidavits signed and things. But, yeah, that was the Professional Seaboard League. Jim Jones … from Poland University.”

Fifty years later, Jim Jones … er, Joe Klecko … will be enshrined in Canton. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

“I don’t know how it happened,” said Klecko, “except that I was there. God has a special way of doing things for all of us.”