Tony Sardisco
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame

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Football, 1952-63
Tulane University/NFL

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Inducted: 1990

Tony Sardisco was a star for the Tulane football team from 1952-55. A team captain as a senior in 1955, he helped the Green Wave post a 5-4-1 record (its best record in five years) with a win over No. 8 Alabama and a season-ending tie with LSU. The Shreveport product was a two-time All-SEC selection and was selected as a first-team All-American by The Sporting News in 1955.
 
Following his senior season, he played in the Blue-Gray Game, the Senior Bowl and the Chicago College All-Star Game, and was named outstanding lineman in the Blue-Gray game after making 14 unassisted tackles.
 
Selected in the sixth round of the 1956 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers, he opened his professional career in San Francisco but was traded to the Washington Redskins midway through the season.
 
After his rookie season, he served in the United States Air Force for two years. He returned to pro football in 1959, playing with the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League.
 
With the launch of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960, Sardisco returned to the U.S. and played guard for the Boston Patriots from 1960 to 1963. He was a team captain for the inaugural squad in 1960 and was named All-AFL in 1961.
 
After his playing career, he went into coaching, working as an assistant at the high school level, with the Buffalo Bills (1968), and at Tulane (1969). He became the head football coach at Jesuit High School (now Loyola College Prep) in Shreveport in 1970. He would become the school’s athletic director in 1973 and remain in that post for 12 years.
 
Sardisco was born Dec. 5, 1932, and he died May 28, 2006, at the age of 73. He is also a member of the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame.