Remembering Ernie T. Pascarella ’65

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Welcome to the PAW Memorials podcast, where we celebrate the lives of alumni. On this episode, we remember Ernie Pascarella ’65. Ernie played on the 1964 undefeated football team and was All-Ivy two years.

TRANSCRIPT

Nicholas DeVito: Hello, I’m Nicholas DeVito, Class Notes and Memorials editor of Princeton Alumni Weekly. This episode I am talking with Cosmo Iacavazzi ’65. We are talking about his teammate and roommate Ernie Pascarella ’65, who died Jan. 24, 2024. Ernie and Cosmo were part of the 1964 undefeated football team. Ernie was All-Ivy two years. 

Cosmo Iacavazzi: My name’s Cosmo Iacavazzi, Class of 1965, captain of our football team in the season of 64, the great undefeated season. Teammate of Ernie Pascarella, as you mentioned, Nick. And also, a roommate from our sophomore year on. Obviously, I got to know Ernie very well throughout our full four years at Princeton. And just real brief, just so that everybody knows this was one outstanding guy in every way.

ND: So tell me, what was your first impression of Ernie? When did you guys first meet?

CI: Well, we first met, most likely by far and away, I’m pretty sure of this, at football practice. In those days, college football had freshman football. As freshmen you come in and only play on a freshman team. You didn’t move up to the varsity. We came in, give or take a week before school started to start our freshmen practice. And at that time there were like 100, 125 guys out on the first day. They were recruited athletes like myself and like Ernie, and non-recruited athletes, anybody who wanted to take a shot at playing football.

On the first day you’re sizing people up. I’m looking at what I think are the other running backs, seeing, “Hey, where do I stack up? Am I going to have a problem here, or there?” And then you’re sizing up the other people. One thing that I sized up about Ernie right away was his size. I knew he was going to be a lineman, and I just knew, “Hey, if I’m playing ball and this guy on the offensive line, I’m going to have a good game.” You just see the guy, he was big our senior year, I believe he was the biggest guy on our team at 235 pounds.

ND: Wow!

CI: He just shows you how the game has changed.

ND: Yeah. Wow. You started that freshman year. And then, when did you guys move up to the varsity team?

CI: Well, as I said, freshman year you’d get to only play freshman football. We played a season of six games. I played running back, fullback in a single wing. Princeton at that time had a single wing as you know. Ernie was a tackle in the line. And in those days you played both sides of the line. He was also defensive tackle. I was also linebacker.

We had a good season that year. We lost the last game to Yale, so we were five and one. Again, just as I thought on day one, meeting Ernie, he was an outstanding lineman then. And then the following year, sophomore year, we then get the opportunity to move up to the varsity. The varsity season starts with a two-to-three-week summer camp at a camp called Blairstown Camp.

We went up there our sophomore year, two a day, full equipment, 90 degrees or more. And let’s just say we became men at that time. That’s when we took a shot at trying to make the varsity. And you’ll hear this throughout about Ernie. It was clear, he was a standout. He was going to be a standout from day one, even on the varsity.

ND: That’s great. That’s great. One thing you wrote, because you wrote Ernie’s memorial for PAW. You wrote that, “Ernie perfected the art of decimating opponents, then graciously helped them to their feet.” How does that describe Ernie?

CI: Yeah. Ernie was a unique individual if you will. Big, tough on a football field, but the mildest guy you’d ever meet off the football field. In a good sense, we called him Baby Huey. He would not hurt anybody. He was harmless in that way except on a football field. On a football field, I mean, he was all business. And this is true. This is not just a quip. Generally, on every play, he’d flatten the guy in front of him. And then more times than not, he’d help him up.

ND: That’s great.

CI: That was Ernie, the gentleman if you will. But Ernie, the football player, had a job to do and he did it very well.

ND: I love that. That’s great. After graduation, I know Ernie, he was a Marine during the Vietnam War. Did he talk about that time at all? Did he?

CI: He did not, Nicholas. And let me tell you what our understanding is. Ernie is a sweet, gentle guy. Committed to his team, committed to our team at Princeton. And that’s what made us great that we were at that time. Committed to his team. Ernie had always wanted to go into the Marines. I think his background, I think a brother also was in the Marines, so that’s where he went to go afterwards.

He went into the Marines. He was more or less a platoon leader in Vietnam. Saw action, saw nasty action. Was wounded two or three times himself but went back each time to be with his guys. And when he came back from Vietnam, he had lost an eye in terms of one of his injuries. And he still had shrapnel in his body, still had metal in his body. A little bit of a limp. He was physically wounded from Vietnam, but I think more importantly, he was emotionally wounded.

He was in some tough firefights, and apparently a lot of his guys were hurt or killed. Ernie being Ernie, he took that personally because he was their leader. And so when he came back from Vietnam, in some respects he was a changed guy. He didn’t talk much about it for the obvious reason. It was not a pleasant experience. His guys got hurt. And his allegiance, if you will, shifted dramatically from Princeton, which he was always loyal, to the Marines. Because if you will, he had a more intensive experience with his Marines.

He came back a little different, and I think that was the impact of Vietnam and the impact on his — not so much on him personally with injuries, he’s a tough guy. But on his guys, they got hurt under his command.

ND: Right. Yeah. As I was looking through some reunion books and everything, I got the sense that he didn’t want to talk about it more. But he did what he had to do, and he took care of his platoon, which is so admirable. Yeah.

CI: Yeah. That was Ernie. Yeah. He had a job to do. He did it. And he was very loyal to his team. What that team experienced was much more intensive than our team experienced, which was pretty intensive itself. But we weren’t. And he felt he had to try to give back to them as much as possible afterwards.

ND: OK. He comes back from the war, and then he went and he earned a master’s degree from Penn and a Ph.D. from Syracuse, both in higher education. And he embarks on a teaching career. Is that something you guys spoke about often? How much did he love teaching?

CI: A little bit. At Princeton, I think he majored in either religion or psychology. I think religion.

ND: Religion. He majored in religion.

CI: Right. And again, it emphasizes, let’s say the soft side and deep-thinking side and spiritual side of Ernie. He talked about teaching. He thought he liked to teach, but really that’s about as far as we went with it. The company came back. Maybe Vietnam has something to do with it. But yeah, he definitely committed to teaching. And I think it was in psychology where he’s got his advanced degrees. And again, this is psychology, how people do what they do, why people do what they do, how you might affect what people do. Again, he wanted to take care of his team, and now it’s a team of students.

ND: Right. Right. Ernie didn’t come back to many Reunions?

CI: No, and again, it wasn’t for negative reasons. It wasn’t Ernie’s mad at Princeton or mad at us or whatever. I think it was the Vietnam experience. He shifted his alliance to his guys in the Marines. And just was focused on his career, his teaching, his researching. He wrote a book that was very well received, wrote significantly in terms of papers. He was very prolific. He had a very busy life if you will. And Princeton just wasn’t as high a priority. No negative reasons, just he had other priorities that he committed to. We never lost touch with Ernie, but we did lose, if you will, physical contact with him.

ND: Right. Yeah. And being in Iowa and teaching, I think it’s tough to get back. I get that. Yeah.

CI: Exactly. Exactly.

ND: What can you say was your favorite quality about Ernie?

CI: My God. I mean he had a variety of them. His commitment to his team. Commitment to getting his job done, commitment to the objective. And again, I’ll just speaking from a football point of view, he had a job to do. He was the center of our line. He was our number eight tackle, and that’s the big guy in the middle. He’s got to open the middle.

I’m a fullback. I run up the middle or off tackle a lot. Most of my plays were focused on or around Ernie. And he got his job done. He was not a rah, rah guy, didn’t make a lot of noise on the field. His presence was just felt through his performance. And again, that goes throughout. I assume that’s how he conducted himself with the Marines and how he conducts himself or conducted himself at Iowa with his kids. Not a noise guy, rah, rah guy, but a performance guy. And by example, you know you’re looking at a man of accomplishment.

ND: Right. That’s great. Well, Cosmo, I appreciate the time. I think we’ll end it there. I appreciate you taking the time to talk about your teammate and roommate and classmate.

CI: I appreciate you following up on Ernie. I mean this really is an outstanding guy in every way. He was in service to his fellow man every which possible way, and an accomplished guy. It’s a real loss to our team and to our class, and to me personally because he was just so sweet and great.

ND: That’s great. That’s great.

CI: Thank you for your interest. I do appreciate that.

ND: No, thank you, Cosmo. I appreciate it. 

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