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Former halfback Joe Marhefka '24, who played halfback on Lafayette's 1921 national championship football team, turned 100 and was honored during the Lafayette-Navy game at Kirby Sports Center Feb. 16.
In addition, Mayor Tom Goldsmith '63 proclaimed “Joe Marhefka Day” in Easton. Marhefka taught English, Latin, and physical education in the school district for 40 years. The mayor had Marhefka for grades 7-9 at March School.
“Schools were different then,” says Goldsmith. “He had such great rapport with the kids and was very affectionately known as 'Mr. Joe.' No one got out of line in his classes because he was so well-liked and respected.”
Lafayette's oldest living alumnus, Marhefka played for Jock Sutherland and was a teammate of Phillipsburg's Charley Berry and Len “Bots” Brunner, writes Ed Laubach in his Feb. 17 The Express-Times column. Marhefka later played against Red Grange in the American Football League as a member of the Philadelphia Quakers.
Marhefka was born in Phillipsburg to Catherine and John Marhefka. His mother died when he was six and his father when he was 13. He was sent to an orphanage in Illinois. When he graduated from high school, he returned to Easton and enrolled at Lafayette.
These days, Marhefka swims an hour of laps each day at YMCA of Easton and spends time with Gladys, 89, his wife of 55 years. “I only feel 100 when I feel one of them dizzy things coming on,” he told Laubach.
Joe Marhefka '24 (center) is honored on his 100th birthday with his wife, Gladys (L-R), great-grandson Kevin Zansitis, and granddaughter Anne Zansitis.