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Campbell native Janecko got his start with OSU
By Brian Dzenis
AUSTINTOWN
From gym class to The Horseshoe. It’s a dream only an Ohio boy can have.
Gene Janecko made it come true.
The 89-year-old Campbell native was part of the undefeated 1944 Ohio State football team. Janecko, along with Campbell teammate Tee Dendiu, got to play for the Buckeyes as 17-year-olds because of a shortage of football players caused by World War II. Speaking from his Austintown home, Janecko said he didn’t think he would have become a football player at all.
“These abilities that I didn’t know I had, blossomed. It opened the door for me to go to college, it gave me a lot of confidence in myself,” Janecko said. “If it didn’t happen, what would I have done? I probably would have gone to the mills and got laid off when they closed.”
Growing up in Campbell, Janecko described himself as a shy child. He struggled through speech classes and he didn’t play any junior high sports. He did well enough in gym class to catch the eye of football coach John Knapick.
I thought it was never for me,” Janecko said. “John Knapick must have seen the ability, because I didn’t. I wasn’t looking at a mirror and telling myself who I am.”
He continued to impress playing for the 1943 Red Devils and when legendary Ohio State coach Paul Brown was the featured speaker at Campbell’s end-of the season banquet, Knapick put some names in Brown’s ear.
“He asked Knapick if he could have anybody that he could use,” Janecko said. “[Knapick] appointed me and [Denediu].”
Ohio State was the national champion in 1942, but the war had gutted Brown’s roster for the following season as the Buckeyes went 3-6 in 1943. Brown had to find 17-year-old players that haven’t enlisted for the armed services. Although Brown recruited Janecko, he never coached him. Brown was drafted into the navy to serve as the head football coach of the Great Lakes Blue Jackets, a team based in Chicago made up of naval recruits between training and active service in the war.
Massillon Washington head coach Carroll Widdoes took over the team and brought a lot of his coaching staff with him.
Ask Janecko what position he played in college and he’ll say left halfback, but he had a lot of jobs in his playing days. College football was also completely different from today’s game. The Buckeyes’ roster was in the 30s numbers-wise, so there were a lot of two-way players, including Janecko.
The team wasn’t completely devoid of talent. Some of the returning players were that year’s eventual Heisman Trophy winner, Les Horvath, and first-team All-Americans William Hackett, Bill Willis and Jack Duggar on the offensive line.
The players of that time were not given scholarships.
“You’re proud of the fact you’re there,” Janecko said. “It wasn’t about what you were getting out of it.”
The coaching staff did help players get jobs and that was where the pecking order was established.
“They gave you a job and you had to go to that job,” Janecko said. “Horvath, the star, he had three jobs that he didn’t have to go to, but he got paid.
“That’s Massillion, I don’t know what what it was like before [Brown], but they did that all the time. That’s why they were so powerful,” Janecko said. “They could move a whole family to Massillon. That gave them a great reputation as a football town.”
The Buckeyes ran what Janecko called the single-right offense, a variation of the popular wing-T formation of the time. It featured an unbalanced line with only one lineman to the left of the center. Teams had quarterbacks at the time, but they didn’t line up under center. They stood near the line, called signals and were expected to block. Behind the QB was a fullback and a halfback, who took the snaps and could either run or throw.
Every aspect of that offense was done by committee. Janecko was behind future Pittsburgh Steelers center Dick Flanagan and Horvath, but still managed to get his numbers. Janecko rushed for 150 yards and a touchdown, caught two TDs and completed his only passing attempt for 15 yards, but the stat that he’s most proud of is his four interceptions, one of which he returned 44 yards for a touchdown.
“I had a knack for being quick,” Janecko said. “A quarterback on the opposite [team] could think he has a guy open and when he threw it, I was there.”
The Buckeyes went 9-0 that season, but couldn’t surpass Army in the polls. Janecko was drafted into the Merchant Marine the following year and didn’t play football. He returned from the service with a case of gout and Ohio State would not take him back. Youngstown College — now known as Youngstown State — accepted him onto its football team.
After just two games with the Penguins, Janecko’s career took a turn for the worse in a road contest against St. Bonaventure.
“I took the kickoff and I signaled to my team that I was going to the right, but I didn’t go to the right. I went my own way and I got to the 50-yard line,” Janecko said. “Like a dummy, I got the kickoff again and I did the same thing. They were ready for me. About three of them hit me and I hurt my knee, my ACL. I still played with tape all up my leg, but my abilities, my God-given skills, were gone.”
Janecko doesn’t wonder what might have been. As far as he’s concerned, he got everything he wanted out of football.
“Football can give a kid something he didn’t know he had,” Janecko said.
Janecko took the confidence he gained from football and had a variety of jobs post-football. He worked as a teacher and an assistant football coach, became a precinct committeeman and councilman in Struthers. He also became local history junkie. Janecko has compiled seven books on the history of area high school football: two on Campbell and one each for Struthers, Woodrow Wilson, Chaney, Ursuline and Austintown Fitch.
“They love me over [in Austintown], they were looking for their Hall of Fame and they didn’t have do any research for football — I did it all,” Janecko said. “They appreciated that.”
Janecko put together all seven books without using the Internet. He frequented public libraries and tracked down individuals from the relevant time periods. The self-satisfaction of telling people their local history fueled him.
Janecko’s own story is pretty good, too.