Football | 9/29/2019 3:39:00 PM

At halftime of Saturday's game vs. Air Force there will be a tribute video and a formal recognition of the number 27 on the turf at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in honor of 1960 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Bellino, who passed away on March 27 at the age of 81.

When Ernie Moreno thinks of his dear friend, classmate and Navy football teammate – and the images of Joe Bellino visit Moreno often these days – of course he marvels at the athletic feats Bellino achieved to create his enduring place in academy and college sports history.

But Moreno gets choked up when he considers how skillfully Bellino enjoyed his elevated status, while effortlessly keeping it at arm's length.

Bellino was all about his family, starting with his wife of 57 years, Ann, his son, John and his daughter, Therese. Not far behind were his beloved Midshipmen, especially the Class of 1961 members, and longtime co-workers in the greater Boston area Bellino never left after serving in the U.S. Navy for four years.

Moreno and assorted Mids say there was never a whiff of pretension about Bellino.

He was a sports icon who rubbed elbows with the likes of New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio. Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano visited with Bellino to congratulate him in person after he'd won the Heisman. Legendary comedian Bob Hope would call on Bellino occasionally to have dinner in Boston's Italian north end. Bellino even appeared on Hope's television variety show.

At the same time, Bellino was admired for the ways he behaved like a natural anti-celebrity, turned off by the very idea of self-glorification.  

"[Bellino] had good reason to brag. There weren't many athletes who could stick up to him back in his day. But Joe would never do it," Moreno says. "I don't think most people realize just how humble and down-to-earth he was. He was a better man and family man than he ever was a sports star."

As Navy's first Heisman Trophy award winner following his sensational 1960 season as the Mids' stellar halfback, Bellino met with newly elected President John F. Kennedy at the White House. The President, a celebrated U.S. Navy veteran and unabashed fan of the Mids, beamed as he chatted with Bellino, who flipped a football as he went back and forth with the leader of the free world.

It was a time when college football still occupied the highest echelon of the sports landscape and television was coming of age. Bellino, with his handsome looks and big smile and unassuming charisma, was an instant star.

But the guy Moreno knew well was the one who kept his Heisman packed in the basement of his home.

Bellino was the guy who, shortly before Christmas leave after winning the trophy, patiently autographed hundreds of Army-Navy programs for his fellow Midshipmen from his fifth-wing room at Bancroft Hall – with Class of '61 mates receiving head-of-line privileges from Bellino. He would repeat the ritual countless times with the public over the rest of his years.

After Bellino had left the Navy as a Lieutenant in 1965 (he would serve 24 more years in the Reserves and retire as a Captain) and settled in Bedford, Mass., he made a habit every morning on his drive to work in Framingham of stopping at Moreno's home, just to beep the horn and say a quick hello to Moreno's mother.

Then, there was the time Moreno stopped by Bellino's office in Natick, another small Massachusetts town. There were no pictures of Bellino to be seen. But on one shelf was a striking photo of Moreno's youngest brother, John, proudly wearing his U.S. Marine Corps uniform. Sergeant Moreno had recently been killed in the Battle of Hue in Vietnam.

Moreno says these were just a few examples of Bellino's everyday humility.

"Joe wasn't just a friend or teammate to me. He was like a brother," Moreno says. "I've got a hole in my heart that will never be filled."

When the news got out that Bellino, shortly following his 81^st birthday, had died on March 27 following a three-month battle with stomach cancer, his old Navy brothers were shocked and deeply saddened.

Bellino had won a fight with skin cancer shortly before he started to experience persistent stomach pains. Thinking he was afflicted with an ulcer, Bellino underwent an exam last December. The family got the terrible news. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Bellino kept the news to himself and family members, while undergoing treatment.

"Dad felt it was up to him to be the strong one. If he was worried, he didn't let on about it," recalls his son, John Bellino. "He stayed positive right to the end."

"We didn't know a thing about it. He didn't want any of his good friends to know he was sick and worry about him. That was Joe," says Ed Straw, a close classmate of Bellino's who retired after a 35-year career that saw him rise to the rank of Vice Admiral.

"I get emotional when I talk about [Bellino]," Straw adds. "He's been so loved by our class, by the entire football brotherhood. I've never heard anybody say a negative word about Joe in my entire life. I'm still not over his passing."

"Joe was so mature at 18. He was able to handle anything that would happen to him [at the academy] like it was just another day at work," says Jack McQuade, a classmate and former receiver/defensive end at Navy who was part of the same company with Bellino over their four years in Annapolis together.

McQuade fondly recalls playing on the plebe football team with Bellino (back then, plebes were not eligible for roster spots on the varsity). He can still see the future National Football Foundation Hall of Famer destroying Villanova with a handful of touchdown runs in a lopsided, season-opening victory.

Standing a slight, 5-feet-9 and maybe 175 pounds as a plebe, Bellino was an imposing rough cut of a budding, star halfback. He had the speedy bursts, exceptional lateral movement and ability to slip tackles or run through them with that strong lower body, highlighted by those legendarily thick calves.

Bellino's modesty also made an early impression, as he would soak in the cheers from the stands and the Navy sideline and quickly deflect the praise right back to his coaches and teammates.

"I'd never seen anybody run that like in my life," says McQuade, who recalls how Bellino "must have scored five touchdowns" against 'Nova. "But Joe didn't like talking about himself. There was never a sense of status with him. He wasn't like us, but he was always one of us."

"My dad would only bring up his football career if someone else brought it up. He was not at all into self-promotion," says John Bellino, a 1989 graduate of the Naval Academy who recently retired as a Captain from the U.S. Navy, after 14 years of active duty and 16 in the reserves as an intelligence officer.

"Dad would answer questions about himself with just the facts," John Bellino adds. "[He would say] 'l did this, I did that and don't forget I had a great offensive line and a great coaching staff.'

"I never saw him play anything he wasn't an absolute natural at – even pool and golf. I'd played racquetball for nearly 20 years. He tried it and he kicked my ass "Then he told me, 'Hey, I just got lucky. Don't worry about it,'" he adds. "He played to win at whatever he did. He was the most competitive man you'd ever meet."

The facts and the numbers reinforce the obvious. As an athlete, Joe Bellino was something else.

He was a three-sport star at Winchester High (football, baseball, basketball) who reportedly drew recruiting interest from more than 100 colleges.

Over three outstanding seasons with the Winchester football team, Bellino only experienced two losses. He got scholarship offers from Notre Dame and several Big Ten Conference schools.

Bellino also was a point guard on a basketball team that won two Eastern Massachusetts championships. He was also a power-hitting catcher/outfielder with an excellent throwing arm who weighed a big-league contract offer coming out of high school.

But the pull of the Naval Academy proved too strong for Bellino to pass up. After spending a year at Columbia Prep School in Washington, D.C., where Bellino led his team to a one-point victory over the academy's plebe team, Bellino came to Annapolis in 1957. He already was a dynamic halfback/defensive back.

"Had Joe been able to play on our varsity team when he was a plebe, I think we'd have been very close to winning a national championship," recalls Tony Stremic, an outstanding senior guard on the '57 team that narrowly missed that mark. Navy finished a 9-1-1 year with a 20-7 victory over Rice in the Cotton Bowl.      

Bellino began to make his varsity mark as a playmaking sophomore in 1958, when he scored five touchdowns while producing 506 yards from scrimmage and averaged 51 yards on four kickoff returns.

The following spring, his first with the varsity baseball team, Bellino hit .428 in 22 games, led the Eastern Intercollegiate League in stolen bases, and intimidated base runners with his throwing arm. He batted .320 in 1960 and was team captain in '61.

Prior to his senior year, Bellino listened to a baseball contract offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates, but declined it. He was set on serving his country and giving back to the Navy, after what the academy had done for him.

Bellino cemented his Navy legend status over his final two football seasons. As a junior in 1959, he rushed for 564 yards and scored eight touchdowns, including a three-touchdown show against Army that included a 46-yard scoring run, propelling the Mids to a 43-12 rout.

A young, relatively unknown high school quarterback named Roger Staubach was watching the Army-Navy game that day.

"Watching Joe dominate that '59 Army-Navy game helped me decide I wanted go to the Naval Academy. I idolized him," says Staubach, who would earn the school's second Heisman Trophy in 1963 and lead Navy back to the Cotton Bowl and a shot at the national title.

Bellino put it all together in a magnificent senior season. He rushed for 834 yards and produced 1,497 all-purpose yards and scored 18 TDs. One of his greatest plays that season was his spectacular, game-saving, goal-line interception in the closing minutes to preserve a 17-12 win over Army.

In three varsity seasons, during which he also started on defense, Bellino scored 31 touchdowns, rushed for 1,664 yards on 330 carries, returned 37 kicks for 833 yards and set 15 school records.

Besides winning the school's first Heisman Trophy after the '60 season, Bellino attained All-America honors and received the Maxwell Award as College Player of the Year. He also finished his senior year by winning the school's top two athletic awards, the Thompson Trophy and the Naval Academy Athletic Association Sword. It was the first time in 41 years one Midshipman received both awards.

His number 27, which now graces the field at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium at the 27-yard line, was retired after the 1960 season – the first Navy player to be accorded such an honor.

Although he was drafted in 1961 by the NFL's Washington Redskins, Bellino had to put his professional goals on hold and turn his attention to his military commitment. After graduation, he served on a destroyer that helped U.S. forces form a naval blockade during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. He later served as executive officer of a minesweeper that took American military advisers on shore early in the Vietnam War.

Upon fulfilling his Navy commitment, Bellino signed with the Boston Patriots of the AFL in 1965. His three-year career was marred by injuries, and Bellino left football behind to become a successful businessman in the Boston area.

He built then sold a catering company before working in the auto auction and leasing industries for over four decades. He was also a longtime member of the Board of Directors of the Northern Bank and Trust, and was devoted to local and national charities. Among his most cherished pursuits was working for the Disabled Veterans cause.

Ed Straw is still moved by a vivid memory that captured Bellino's down-to-earth charm. Back in 1995, Straw witnessed former Navy running back great Napoleon McCallum meeting Bellino for the first time at a dinner party he had organized at his former quarters in the Washington Navy Yard.

As Straw recalls, "Napoleon reaches his hand toward Joe and says, 'Mr. Bellino, it's an honor to meet the best running back in Naval Academy history. Joe taps Napoleon on his massive chest, looks him in the eye and says, 'First of all Napoleon, the name is Joe, and second, you are the best running back in Naval Academy history.

"Joe had no ego. He treated everyone as though he'd known them for years," Straw adds. "That story says everything about Joe. Not only is he the best athlete I've ever known. He's the best person I've ever known."