NEW YORK: Harry Jacunski (FCO @39), who played football side-by-side with Vince Lombardi and was one of Fordham’s Seven Blocks of Granite, died on Feb. 20 in Connecticut of congestive heart failure. He was 87. Jacunski, a co-captain of the Rams in 1938, helped revive the Seven Blocks of Granite title, which was originally designated for the 1929-30 Fordham linemen. The second incarnation included Jacunski, Lombardi, Alex Wojceichowicz and four others. After graduating from Fordham in 1939, Jacunski intended to leave football for the workforce and told the New York Giants not to bother drafting him.
How-ever, a sluggish job market caused Jacunski to rethink his decision, leading him to play six seasons for the Green Bay Packers, National Football League champions of 1939 and 1944. In the off-season, Jacunski returned home to New Britain, Conn., where he stayed in shape working construction. In 1945, Jacunski began a 35-year coaching career and spent the last 33 of those years on the coaching staff at Yale University. He is survived by his sons, Robert and Richard; two daughters, Carol Fiore and Margaret Monaco; 14 grand-children; and 12 great-grandchildren. Jacunski’s wife, Anne, died in 1984, and his second wife, Grace, died in October.
