Fans of Blue Mountain State certainly know and love Ed Marinaro who played Coach Marty Daniels on the hit series. But before playing the highly questionable football coach, Ed Marinaro was a real American football player. In 1971, he was considered for the famous Heisman Trophy but ended up as Pat Sullivan’s runner-up, narrowly missing out on the trophy. The Heisman Trophy is an annual award given to the most outstanding player in the American College Football League. It is usually awarded to the player who demonstrates integrity alongside the pursuit of excellence.
After leaving football, he started to act as a new career path and since then he had a series of stable roles. One of his most memorable roles was as Officer Joe Coffey, the lead character in Hill Street Blues, a police procedural that aired on NBC from 1981 through 1987; the show followed the lives of officers and staff at a police station on a fictional street called “Hill Street” in an unnamed town. The show met with seemingly universal success and inspired numerous police procedurals. It received a total of 98 Emmy Award nominations and won 8 Emmy Awards in its first season alone. Pretty impressive.
On the show, Ed Marinaro played a patrol officer and Vietnam veteran who is popular and loved by his colleagues. Due to his stature, his character was usually chosen to break down doors when necessary.
Acting career
After quitting football, he opted for an acting career. He got his start becoming an actor in several television shows, including Sisters and Laverne and Shirley.
Laverne and Shirley was an iconic television show that ran for eight seasons about two roommates and friends who work at a fictional Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee in the late 1950s. Beginning with the sixth season, the series moved to Burbank, in California, and Ed Marinaro joins the cast as the owner – Sonny St. Jacques, a tall, muscular handsome man who was originally intended as a love interest of Laverne, though this never materialized..
He also appeared on Circus Island, a 2006 family film which also starred sisters Audrey Landers and Judy Landers. Other films and TV series he has appeared in over the years include: The Gong Show Movie, The Fingers, Dead Aim, The Queen’s Logic, The Fist of the Warrior, The Protector, The Tender and The compromise. He also appeared in the film Blue Mountain State – Blue Mountain State : The Rise of Thadland
Soccer career
Before stepping foot in the acting door, he was a superstar football player. He played for the New Milford High School Knights in New Jersey. After which, he played college football at Cornell University, an ivy league university in New York. At Cornell, he set 16 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) records. He was also the first running back to rush for more than 4,000 career yards in NCAA history.
In 1971, Ed Marinaro won the Maxwell Award which is presented annually to a college football player selected by a panel of sportswriters, sports broadcasters, NCAA head coaches and members of the Maxwell Football Club, in as the best player of the year in the United States. He also won the UPI University College Football Player Award in 1971.
Net value
Thanks to his decades as an actor and his many years as a professional football player, Ed Marinaro currently has a total net worth of $3 million.
5 random facts about Ed Marinaro
1. Ed is married to fitness expert Tracy York. The two got married in 2001 and they have a son – Eddie Marinaro (named after his father).
2 Ed Marino played professional football for six seasons. He played with the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. While with the Vikings, he played in Super Bowl VIII and Super Bowl IX. The sports superstar has scored 13 touchdowns in his career. In 1991, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1991.
3 At Cornell University, he was a member of Psi Upsilon (also known as Psi U), a North American fraternity. He was also chosen to join the Sphinx Head Society, an association that recognizes Cornell University graduate students who have demonstrated respectable character and unwavering dedication to leadership and service.
4. One of his most popular roles, however, was his appearance as Coach Marty Daniels on Spike TV’s. State of the Blue Mountain, a fan-favorite college-campus television show that exaggerated aspects of American college life like heavy drinking, sex, partying, drugs, hazing, and American football. The show has developed a cult following over the years.
5. Ed still holds two NCAA records – career average per game (34.0) and most rushes per game in a season (39.6).