Joe Vadini, Legendary Football Coach, Dies at 83

A legend in the classroom and the football field in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District has died.

Joe Vadini died on Easter with his family at his side. 

It was also his 83rd birthday.

Friends and former players remembered him as a great coach and teacher, family man and mentor to many. 

“He was a great guy, and he was very tuned in to football,” said friend and former player Jim Lid, who played for Vadini in the early 1960s. “He was also a role model; he cared for his players; he was a good coach. Above all he was a friend. He had a softer side.”

“He was a big role model in my life — second only to my dad.”

In 1983, Vadini announced he was leaving the Brecksville-Broadview Heights school district after 25 years as its head football coach.

Later that season, the team won its first state championship — a "storybook finish.”

But Vadini's story was far from over. After leaving Brecksville, he went to coach at Padua Francisan High School for about 20 years.

And for the past several years, he’d been helping out the son who followed in his footsteps, coaching junior high at North Royalton Middle School.

“I like coaching,” Vadini told Brecksville Patch in 2011. “I’ve been in it a long time.”

Vadini started in football as a player. He was a fullback and a running back, who got his start at John Marshall in Cleveland — he’d later return for his first, post-service job — and went on to play at Morningside College and Mount Union.

In 1952, he played football for the U.S. Army, Camp Breckenridge where the team was all Army Champions.

But it wasn’t all about football for Vadini. He was involved in amateur baseball from 1943 to 1952. He also founded and coached the Brecksville’s wrestling team.

During his more than 50 years coaching, he’d received dozens of honors and accolades.

Vadini’s wife, Thelma, whom he was married to for 56 years, died in August 2011.

He is survived by his four children: Tony (Chris), Mark (Joanie), Cindy (Tim), Joe (Beth), and eight grandchildren.

Calling hours are scheduled to take place at Ripepi and Sons on Bagley Road from 2 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. April 4. The funeral is slated to take place at Holy Family Church in Parma at 10 a.m. April 5.

“He was a family man,” added Lid, who’s flying for the services from his Arizona home. “He was just a unique person. If you played for him, you were a part of his family. He will be missed by a lot of people."