BELOIT — Julius Pellegrini’s Hall of Fame credentials included playing on Carl Nelson’s first Big Eight Conference championship football team and starring for Beloit College’s unbeaten 1952 squad. He was a top sprinter at the college and in the summer was an elite fastpitch player.
But as good as he was as an athlete, Pellegrini may have been even better as a coach, bringing out the best in track athletes at his alma mater, Beloit Memorial High School.
Pellegrini, “Julie” to friends, passed away at 95 on June 21 in Berrien County, Mich., after a brief illness.
Born in 1929 in Capannori, Italy, he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister to join his father, who had left earlier to work as a foundryman at Fairbanks Morse in Beloit.
Pellegrini began showing off his athletic ability at Roosevelt Junior High and became a standout in track and football when he moved on to Beloit Memorial.
He was the leading scorer for the 1947 Big Eight football champions and a first-team all-conference halfback for Hall of Fame coach “Pill” Nelson.
Pellegrini played for Nelson longer than most. The coach brought him up to the varsity for the final two games his sophomore year, started him as a junior and senior and then coaxed him to come to Beloit College when he landed the head coaching job there.
“I consider myself fortunate to have played for Coach Nelson,” Pellegrini said in an interview prior to his induction into the Beloit Historical Society Elliott-Perring Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. “He was very focused. He didn’t believe in telling you about fundamentals. He believed in drilling them into you with different kinds of activities in practice. The bottom line was that we really were good at the fundamentals.”
In Pellegrini’s senior year, Beloit won the Big Eight title, clinching it with a victory over Janesville at Monterey Stadium. Generally the smallest guy on the field at 5-foot-8 and about 145 pounds, Pellegrini provided the spark after his team fell behind 6-0. He turned a quick hitter up the middle into a 50-yard touchdown scamper.
“We had to win that game to win the title and for a quarter things didn’t look too good,” Pellegrini remembered. “That long run was a big play for us.”
After graduating in 1948, Pellegrini moved over to Beloit College just as many other former Beloit High standouts began to do, including boyhood friend Henry “Hank” Levihn.
Beloit’s basketball team was in the midst of the Dolph Stanley golden years, but the football team was winless in 1948 and 2-6 in 1949. Nelson’s arrival brought about a revival and a 20-3 record over his first three seasons, including 8-0 in 1952. They had won their final two games of 1951 and added their first three of 1953, giving them a school record 13 straight victories.
Pellegrini was the 1952 team’s top rusher, averaging seven yards per carry.
Thanks to Stanley’s success in basketball, the Midwest Conference had booted Beloit out of the league for focusing too much on athletics. They were playing an independent schedule in 1952 including North Dakota, Northern Illinois, Hope College and Washburn College.
“Carl used to say becoming an independent made the schedule more challenging because we had to find teams willing to play us,” Pellegrini said.
Pellegrini had a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown against NIU that season. He also had a long run of over 90 yards.
“I know when we lined up the goal line was right behind us,” Pellegrini said.
He played football in a day when the helmets were without faceguards and you didn’t use mouthguards.
“You stuck your face in there and there were a lot of nosebleeds,” he said.
Pellegrini also competed in track his sophomore and junior years, losing only one sprint race during that span.
In the summer months, Pellegrini was a regular at Roosevelt Field.
“Roosevelt was a hotbed for fastpitch softball in those days,” said Pellegrini, an all-star catcher and outfielder. “There were tournaments and traveling leagues. There was a game down there practically every night and there were always fans there. For the tournament games, they put up fences and charged admission.”
Pellegrini served a tour in the Army and when he was discharged in 1955 fastpitch was fading.
“It was replaced by slowpitch, which I did not like,” he said.
Pellegrini took a job as a teacher at South Beloit High School. After four years there he was hired by his high school alma mater in 1961 as a Biology teacher. He served as an assistant to football coach Bill Myers and track coach Paul Nee.
In 1965, he took over as head track coach when Nee retired. He also became the head cross country coach.
“We were not great in cross country,” Pellegrini said. “My main accomplishment was I took over with five runners and by the time Don Reickert took over five years later there were 25-30 guys out.”
The track team was strong most of his tenure, including a string of two straight years of undefeated dual meets. Dick McCauley, who had served as his assistant, later took over as head coach and Pellegrini switched to being his assistant. Pellegrini can take credit for coaching four individual state champions: Paul Morrow, Don Grady, Steve Bittorf and Kirk Bradford.
Even after retiring as an assistant coach in 1978, Pellegrini hung around and helped out. He didn’t miss the time commitment head coaching required.
“When you’re in the sciences, coaching is difficult simply because the lab work needs to be done,” he said. “The only time you can do set-up for labs for the next day is when the kids aren’t there. That means doing it after school or at night. If you’re a coach, after school you have to be with your athletes. I went back to the classroom many, many, many nights.”
He finally retired as a teacher in 1991 after 33 years of successful teaching and coaching.
A funeral Mass to celebrate Pellegrini’s life will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday Aug. 3, at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Beloit. Prior to Mass, the family will hold a visitation at the church beginning at 10 a.m.
Most Popular
Comments / 0