Piccolo was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the youngest of three sons of Joseph and Irene Piccolo. The family moved south to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when Piccolo was three, due to his parents' concerns for his brother Don's health. Piccolo and his brothers were athletes, and he was a star running back on his high school football team, although he considered baseball his primary sport.[2] He graduated from the former Central Catholic High School (now St. Thomas Aquinas High School) in Fort Lauderdale in 1961.[2]
A season earlier in 1963, Darryl Hill of the University of Maryland was the first and only African-American football player in the ACC. According to Lee Corso, a Maryland assistant coach at that time, Wake Forest had "the worst atmosphere" of any campus the Maryland football team visited. Piccolo went over to the Maryland bench, walked Hill over to the area in front of the student section and put his arm around him, silencing the crowd.[9]
Following his spectacular senior season, Piccolo married his high school sweetheart, Joy Murrath, on December 26, 1964.[10] They had three daughters: Lori, Traci, and Kristi.[2]
NFL career
Because he was not selected in the 1965 NFL draft or AFL draft,[10] Piccolo tried out for the Chicago Bears as a free agent.[11] He made the team for the 1965 season, but only on the taxi squad (known today as the practice squad), meaning he could practice but not suit up for games. In 1966, he made the main roster but his playing time was primarily on special teams. In 1967 he got more playing time backing up superstar starting tailback Gale Sayers, which increased after Sayers' knee injury in November 1968.[12][13][14] Piccolo's biggest statistical year was 1968, during which he posted career bests with 450 yards on 123 carries (a 3.7 average), two touchdowns, and 28 receptions for 291 yards (a 10.4 average).[15]
In 1969, Piccolo was moved up to starting fullback, with Sayers returning as halfback, placing the two in the same backfield on offense.
Players at that time were still segregated by race for hotel-room assignments. At the suggestion of the Bears' captain, the policy was changed and each player was reassigned by position, so that wide receivers would room together, quarterbacks would room together, etc. Running back was the only position of the 1969 Bears with one black and one white player, Sayers and Piccolo, respectively.
Cancer and death
The Bears were in the midst of a 1–13 season in 1969, the worst record in their history.[16] Piccolo had earned a place in the starting lineup as an undersized fullback. Their only win came in the eighth game on November 9, a 38–7 home win over struggling Pittsburgh. Piccolo opened the scoring at Wrigley Field with a 25-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter.[17][18][19] The next week in Atlanta, he scored a fourth-quarter touchdown on a one-yard run,[20][21] and then voluntarily removed himself from the game, something he had never done,[22] raising great concern among his teammates and coaches. Breathing while playing had become extremely difficult for him, so when the team returned to Chicago, he was promptly sent for a medical examination at which he was diagnosed with embryonal cell carcinoma.[23]
Piccolo's grave at Saint Mary Catholic Cemetery
Soon after initial surgery at Sloan-Kettering in Manhattan, New York to remove the tumor, he underwent a second procedure in April 1970 to remove his left lung and left pectoral muscle. Bothered by continuing chest pain afterward, he was re-admitted to the hospital in early June where doctors determined the cancer had spread to other organs, particularly his liver. He died in the early morning of June 16 at the age of 26.[22][24][25] The month before Piccolo's death, Gale Sayers accepted the George S. Halas Award for Most Courageous Player and told the crowd they had selected the wrong person for the award. He said, "I love Brian Piccolo, and I'd like all of you to love him, too. Tonight, when you hit your knees to pray, please ask God to love him, too."
In 1972, Brian Piccolo Middle School 53 opened in Queens, New York on Nameoke Street in Far Rockaway. The school name was chosen by students after the first airing of Brian's Song. The football jersey that belonged to Brian Piccolo that was displayed in the lobby has been missing since the school was renovated in the late 1990s.
In August 1973, Orr Middle School, located on the West Side of Chicago on Keeler Avenue, was renamed after Piccolo to the Brian Piccolo Specialty School.
In 1980, students at Wake Forest, Piccolo's alma mater, began the Brian Piccolo Cancer Fund Drive in his memory.[27] They raised money for the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Bowman Gray Medical Center of Wake Forest University. In addition, the Brian Piccolo Student Volunteer Program was established to provide undergraduates with an opportunity to work at the Cancer Center as volunteers. A residence hall at Wake Forest is also named in his honor.[28]
In memory of Piccolo's accomplishments, the St. Thomas Aquinas High School football stadium in Fort Lauderdale is named after him. At the end of every football game, the school's marching band plays "The Hands of Time", the theme from Brian's Song.
Comcast SportsNet profiled Piccolo's legacy and the lasting impression he left in the June 2007 episode of 'net Impact.
Each season since 1972, the Atlantic Coast Conference has awarded the Brian Piccolo Award to the conference's "Most Courageous Player". In 2007, the recipient was Matt Robinson of Wake Forest, the fourth player from Piccolo's alma mater to be given the award; Wake Forest Quarterback Sam Hartman became the sixth in 2022.[29] Since 1970, the Chicago Bears have also handed out an award by the same name to a rookie and (since 1992) a veteran who "best exemplifies the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor" of Piccolo. The winners are chosen by the Bears' veteran players.[30]
An Italian-American organization named UNICO (an acronym for Unity, Neighborliness, Integrity, Charity, and Opportunity) honors his memory each year by awarding the Brian Piccolo Award to courageous and outstanding athletes of Italian-American heritage. In 2009 Brian's brother Don attended his first UNICO award ceremony in Rivervale, New Jersey, where he delivered a speech.
The Chicago Bears honored Piccolo by retiring his jersey number 41.[31]
The film Brian's Song, loosely based on Gale Sayers' autobiography, tells the story of the friendship between Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and their time together while playing football for the Chicago Bears, up until Piccolo's death.[32] It first aired Tuesday, November 30, 1971, on ABC, less than 18 months after his death, and starred James Caan as Piccolo and Billy Dee Williams as Sayers. The movie was seen by 55 million viewers, half of the U.S. population that owned televisions at that time.[33] Its success on television led to it also being later shown in theaters.
Piccolo's biography, Brian Piccolo: A Short Season, was written by Jeannie Morris (a journalist whose husband was former Bears teammate Johnny Morris) and featured passages written by Piccolo himself for a planned autobiography.
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