Just a day or two into his one and only training camp with the Morgan State Bears, a proud member institution of the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities), Franco Rocca knew that a statement had to be made.
“When I got down there, initially, everybody hated me,” said Rocca. “I didn’t make any friends early. I wasn’t socializing that much.”
It was far less about anything the wide-eyed lad from northern Ontario had done and far more about the environment into which he had roamed.
The now 54 year-old long-time educator who was born in Italy but came to Canada at the age of three was lined up opposite the Bears’ veteran nose tackle, a 300-pound monster that was as stout as they came.
A centre with some helpful adaptability, Rocca shot directly up off the snap, catching the bottom of the defender’s chin strap and popping off his helmet – and then just started swinging.
“White boy is crazy,” laughed Rocca, recalling the words of one of his coaches – though he would contend that he is far more olive (of Mediterranean descent) than Caucasian. “There have always been moments like that.”
Such is the harsh reality of life in football, especially in the trenches where the graduate of Lockerby Composite was plying his trade. Though his professional career maxed out at just eight years, a Grey Cup championship in 1999 with the Hamilton Tiger Cats and a four year European football excursion that closed out this chapter of his life rank as clear-cut highlights.
Before, after and in between those moments, there may have been a battle or two along the way for the man who went on to coach the St Benedict Bears to three SDSSAA senior football championships and is currently guiding the Sudbury U16 Spartans girls tackle football team - and daughter Gia - into action this summer.
The second eldest of four children in the family, Rocca confesses that the quartet offer an intriguing mix of athletics and culture, with his youngest sibling (Bruno) working as an Art Director in the Sudbury film and television industry and sister Pina a decorated retired teacher.
“We are all somewhat athletic, are all artistic in some ways, and are all good with kids in some ways,” said Franco.
“We are all family people, very nurturing.”
They also are all more than a little proud of their Italian heritage, a background based in southern Italy (Calabria and area), but with plenty of European off-shoots, something which became increasingly evident to Franco as he finished his playing days overseas.
A Sudbury West Ender, Rocca and friends were blessed with no lack of special memories, from leaving elementary school to work a funeral or taking time at recess to marvel at all that was the slag pouring just beyond the hill.
With a little convincing from Dave Andler, Rocca would forego the more traditional route of attending St Charles College in favour of the home of the Vikings, where he starred in both basketball and football. In his first year at Lockerby, the mountain of a young man would play in the junior ranks for an “idiot coach” – now long-time friend and co-coach, John MacLean.
“He poked me and poked me and poked me – and I finally poked back,” said Rocca.
That kind of resilience and defiance in the face of challenges would come in particularly handy when Rocca joined the Sudbury Spartans men’s team at the age of just 15 or 16. Even more than the Ontario Power 5 League is today, the Northern Football Conference of the late eighties and early nineties was replete with grown men, gents who had already played university football and were finding themselves missing the game.
“There is no way I would have lasted five minutes anywhere across the border had I not been already playing against grown men,” said Rocca.
Certainly not at Morgan State in downtown Baltimore, a school where guns might be pulled in the midst of a varsity basketball game. Keeping his head down while taking full advantage of the open door before him, Rocca would complete a “one and done” and made the move to Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilani (MI), a half hour or so down the road from the University of Michigan.
“Morgan State was an opportunity to play,” said Rocca. “From that perspective, it worked out well. I started 10 of our 11 games as a true freshman.”
After a summer spent working with Inco and with a landscaping gig, Rocca made his way to the EMU fall camp without the benefit of a scholarship in hand. Sitting out one year due to the transfer, the hardened northern Ontario lad was willing to do whatever it takes to make his way on to the field of play.
“I was able to play in a couple of different spots – and long-snaping was something that was starting to become pretty predominant,” he recalled. “The more things you can do, the better chance you get on the bus” – or the plane, for that matter.
A member of the MAC (Mid-American Conference), the Eagles would supplement their conference schedule with visits to Penn State, Wisconsin, Syracuse, Pitt and the like, with Rocca playing well enough to find himself drafted in the third round of the CFL player dispersal, 23rd overall.
One year in Winnipeg followed by a pair of memorable campaigns in Hamilton, going from worst to first and falling in the Grey Cup final of 1998 before earning redemption a year later, Rocca played three more games in his final season with the Toronto Argonauts before opting to pursue teaching as a career.
It was in this light that he made contact with a friend and teacher at St Andrews College, one who had played a few years in Europe, a journey that allowed Rocca to write the postscript in a manner in which he was completely at ease.
“I wanted to go out on my own terms,” he said. “I got to negotiate my own contract. I visited family in Switzerland and northern Italy. I would have never had the chance to do that. It just opened up so many things.”
