Italian American Heritage Month 2023: Jaw-Dropping Jumping Joe Savoldi

In the third edition of Italian American Heritage Month 2023, we will cover Jumping Joe Savoldi. At least the things we know about the NFL player, wrestler, and CIA agent.

Joe Savoldi: The Kid

Giuseppe Antonio Savoldi was born on March 5th, 1908, in Castano Primo, Province of Milan, Italy. The future Italian American Heritage Month legend was born two months premature. It was a difficult experience for a child born at the beginning of the 20th century.

Ever a fighter, Joe would thrive. While his parents immigrated to America, Savoldi would stay in Italy under the care of his aunt and his grandmother until he joined his parents in Michigan when he was 12, where his father owned a successful candy store.

Besides being a man with more careers than the average millennial, Savoldi’s intelligence is highlighted by his academic career. Apparently, none of his Italian school credits counted in Michigan so he had to meet all educational requirements from kindergarten to eighth grade.

Jumping Joe did this in just two years. He was able to enter high school at the correct age.

Little Joe would not be his parents’ only child. He also had at least one sister and one brother.

Joe Savoldi: The Football Player

High School

Joe Savoldi was a three-sport athlete in high school. He played football, basketball, and track.

In terms of his journey in American culture, Savoldi aimed to anglicize his name, hence going by Joe. He was also proud that he had kicked his “accent.”

We acknowledge that acclimating to a new culture can be complicated; in Joe’s case, that was likely exaggerated by the harmful stereotypes Italians in America were subjected to at that time. Although it’s sad that Savoldi felt like he had to change himself, we understand the nuance in the Italian American Heritage Month articles. We support Joe Savoldi in doing what felt right to him at the time.

It is positive that the former NFL star felt comfortable communicating his thoughts; he was quite vocal as a teenager about the political problems in Italy at the time (think Mussolini). A lot of teens don’t develop such a keen interest in civics.

Due to carrying bricks up ladders for his uncle, who was a bricklayer by trade, Savoldi was incredibly developed. He was described as being one mass of muscle, formed by his back, chest, and shoulders. He also had a slight waist and sturdy legs. He probably had some pretty significant lower back pain with all that muscle weight on his waist.

College 

Joe was a particularly desirable college prospect, and he got courted by a few institutions. The famous head coach of the Fighting Irish, Knute Rockne, pursued Savoldi. It was an easy sale since Joe came from a Catholic family, and they helped him make the choice to go to Notre Dame.

Jumping Joe was the fourth nickname given to the fullback, one of which was an ethnic slur. Jumping Joe stuck when Savoldi scored a TD by going up and over the goal line. A thing most mere mortals would find difficult due to a lack of body padding and leather helmets.

But Joe is no mere mortal; he’s a hero we’re honoring for Italian-American Heritage Month.

Things would be tumultuous to some extent in college for Savoldi. He didn’t start at Notre Dame until his junior year, and he actually took a quick hiatus off the roster when Rockne had some ideas about changing his position.

He was no shmuck on the field, though. In the portion of 1930 that he was still in college, he was getting 11 yards per carry and 40 yards per kickoff return on average.

Jumping Joe had to hop off the team when the news was dropped that he was secretly married—his family didn’t even know.

It was truly a bizarre relationship. They never lived together; he lived at college, and she lived with her parents. A smut paper dropped the hot gossip that included a copy of a divorce that Joe Savoldi had signed. Joe claimed that his wife Audrey was cruel and quarreled with him over trifling matters—that last one most of us can relate to.

The judge who married the two withdrew the divorce a day later.

Savoldi held onto this lie like he was glued to it, denying the claims with emphasis. However, he was married, so his repeated denial is both worrisome and might have made the consequences worse.

Apparently, because Joe was Catholic and Audrey was not, the Fighting Irish were not having it. If he stayed married, that would be an issue since they had an “inter-religion” marriage; if he got divorced, that would also be an issue because that didn’t align with the school’s value system either.

Jumping Joe jumped off the team and out of his marriage. There was no fixing his dilemma with Notre Dame, and he left shortly after his divorce papers got leaked. Savoldi claimed that Audrey had lied to him about being pregnant, even though she was not.

The marriage finally came to a legal close when Audrey sued her husband with desertion, and as a result, the marriage was annulled.

Joe Goes Pro

Savoldi was a troublemaker while doing the least problematic behaviors ever. A divorce that caused him to leave college continued to create problems for Joe and the professional teams that wanted him.

Before dipping out of college, Joe had secured a deal with George Halas and the Chicago Bears. At that point in time, players were not allowed to play pro if they had attended college but not graduated. But Halas put his foot down, and having Red Grange and Bronco Nagurski in Joe’s position already didn’t mean anything to the team owner.

Curly Lambeau of the Green Bay Packers was actually the first team to sign Savoldi, but Halas threw an entire forest worth of shade at the coach, shaming Curly into retracting Joe’s contract. As soon as Joe Savoldi was a free agent of sorts again, Halas snapped him up.

League president Joe Carr said Savoldi could play, but there would be a $1,000 fee per game he played in. Jumping Joe was being paid $12,000 a year and was the second highest paid NFL player in 1930, and he only played in three games.

Teammates held a lot of animosity against Jumping Joe for making so much money, and Savoldi felt he had 21 enemies on the team. With no help on the field, he quickly but quietly slid onto the bench and then off the roster.

While he was in the league, he racked up the points. He even beat Curly Lambeau’s team 21-0 in an upset game that likely crushed the Green Bay Packers’ souls.

Back To College

For an unclear reason, Notre Dame invited Savoldi to participate in an all-star exhibition game in Los Angeles, where he scored all three of the team’s touchdowns in the game.

And then he was done with the gridiron.

The Wrestling Joe Savoldi

Joe Savoldi was never a man who left one job without having another one lined up. He had already been doing auditions as an actor when he played in Los Angeles, where two gentlemen who owned a professional wrestling business together spotted him and saw the potential.

What is possibly better for an Italian American Heritage Month hero who dominated in one sport? Someone who dominated two. It’s important to note that he has no relation to Joseph Fornini, who took his name and claimed he was related to the great.

Wrestling was basically created with Jumping Joe in mind. It was a popular sport, so he got the same level of notoriety he enjoyed with football. His exercise routine also included regular boxing and wrestling in college. Savoldi was also a bit stouter at 220 pounds, with a neck that measured 18.5 inches around and was described as resembling a tree trunk.

Savoldi won his first wrestling match in just 13 minutes, and it was the beginning of a roughly 20-year career in the ring. He toured around Europe, wrestling over the seas and in America. He had created and perfected the move we now know as his version of the drop kick.

Jumping Joe was in 100 matches roughly a year and roped in about $50,000 a year. An amount that cannot be overstated considering it was the 1930s.

By 1938, Joe had been married, divorced one woman, and then married his wife, Lois. The third time ended up being the charm for Savoldi; the couple was together until he died. By that time, Joe was looking a bit like an old man too. He was a dad to Joe III, and he had a receding hairline, and his eyes lost that youthful glimmer he was known for (it was probably brain trauma).

In the late 1930s, he started a beer distributorship and created and sold an energy drink called Dropkick. The sugar rations that came with World War II would curb that business idea.

Joe Savoldi would take a break from wrestling (mostly) with the job we are discussing next from 1942 to 1945, and then resume where he left off until 1950. He was significantly slower in the mid-to-late 1940s. Arthritis hit him hard.

Savoldi, the CIA Agent?

Joe’s service to our country in an incredible, unusual fashion for three years quite possibly makes him the most legendary player we’ve ever covered during Italian American Heritage Month, or any other heritage month really. Top three, for sure.

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the CIA, reached out to the wrestler in 1942. You didn’t contact the OSS; they contacted you. It’s a little unsettling, but there were a lot of alarming things in such a rudimentary version of the CIA in 1942.

Savoldi had a lot of admirable traits that must have stuck out to the OSS. Probably some of the traits that made him stick out as a great person to honor during Italian American Heritage Month.

Joe Savoldi in disguise, while he was working undercover for the OSS. pic.twitter.com/zQ9gbFYLzm

— Jon Boucher (@jon_boucher) January 26, 2020

He was Italian and still spoke his native language, understanding multiple dialects. He was also familiar with the geography, including Mussolini’s compound (but how, though?). His lifelong distaste for fascism also meant he would help America bring his home country down. In addition to all that was his wrestling skills, he could… severely hurt someone with just his fists.

The former football and wrestling star went from being an American athlete to being a spy, performing multiple missions in Italy. Three, to be exact. He was working on the “Project McGregor” mission.

$4,ooo a month was the going rate for Italian American wrestling spies. This man made so much money.

Spy Savoldi had a convincing cover story. He was traveling to Europe, doing wrestling exhibitions to entertain the soldiers. Joe’s work was so convincing that not even his wife knew the extent of his job until a book was written by him after he died.

After Italy surrendered in 1943, Joe would work more gigs, busting up the Mafia in Naples, Italy. He was tired of the CIA agent life, though, and was discharged in January of 1945, receiving a memo that he was getting the boot from the government one month before he was fired.

The OSS didn’t even have a story prepared when people asked the famous wrestler where he had been for a couple years. He asked them for help, but it’s unclear how much involvement they had in his cover story that he was working for the government doing special projects. Very sneaky.

The Rest of the Italian American Heritage Month Legend’s Life

In comparison to the beginning of his life, things really slowed down for Joe.

9/2/31 Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium
Jumpin' Joe Savoldi – seen pictured with his wife – seeks to overcome Everett Marshall in the main event and become a serious contender for the world heavyweight wrestling championship. pic.twitter.com/X7WpbrHvxC

— Rock Rims (@Rockrims) October 15, 2021

He lived a small-town life with his wife and son in Kentucky. He was done in the ring by the early 1950s but mentored some up-and-comers. Most notably, he managed and mentored the first black heavyweight champion, Houston Harris.

A lifelong learner, Savoldi actually finished his degree when he was 54 years old, getting his BA.

Jumping Joe gave back. A pastor who ran a club for troubled boys heard that Savoldi lived in the area and was in training to be a teacher. He asked if our Italian American Heritage Month legend could help teach the boys a couple of things in the ring.

He never told the boys who he was, but he volunteered once a week for three years at the local community center. His arthritis was so bad that he couldn’t pick up the barbells due to the pain and curling of his hands. Even if his help was all verbal, the boys loved him, and he loved the boys. The kids had an idea of who he was but had not really; they just appreciated him for him.

Life was getting a lot harder for Joe. His family would describe him as completely destroyed physically and struggling mentally by his mid-50s. He had to take pills before he slept because the nightmares were so vivid every night. The pain in his back was so significant that he struggled to get and stay asleep, finding some sort of relief by placing a wooden board underneath the sheets and over the mattress on his side of the couple’s bed.

Savoldi would go on to be a science teacher at a local high school for 11 years. Imagine having a football and wrestling star and a secret service agent as your high school senior teacher, and you had no idea about any of it.

Joseph Savoldi would pass away at just 65 from a heart attack. Many of the people in the later half of his life when he was a dad and a teacher never knew who he actually was, with some learning little pieces but never the whole picture. Such a secretive guy to the end.

Is your science teacher a former professional athlete and CIA agent, kids?

Make sure you’re caught up on all things Italian American Heritage Month 2023 on Defiant Takes. The first article of the month can be found here, and the second here.