Long Island football coaching legend Marcus 'Marc' Martone dies at 99

Family and friends of Nassau football legend Marcus "Marc" Martone met in August for an early birthday party, weeks before Martone was to turn 100 years old. Those who attended, like executive director of Nassau scholastic sports Pat Pizzarelli, left with a gift.

A small bouncy ball with a smiley face.

"He bounces it and catches it," Pizzarelli said of Martone. "He goes, ‘Remember, life is not always going to be so great. You’re going to have some days that are really not good.' "

Martone bounced the ball again.

"Remember, bounce back and keep going," Pizzarelli said.

Martone’s philosophy applied to his happy marriage with his late wife, Stephanie, his relationship with his faith, and all the opportunities he had and gave to others across a fulfilling life. It’s a philosophy that continues as football players rumble on the gridiron at H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin Square — Marc Martone Field.

Always thankful

"My father was all about being thankful," his daughter Marcia Jones, of Blue Point, said. "If it’s a small little thing, whatever; find something to be thankful about and smile."

Martone died Aug. 31 of congestive heart failure at The Bristal Assisted Living in Mount Sinai, his daughter said. He was 99 and just two weeks shy of turning 100.

Born on Sept. 14, 1926, in Glen Cove, Martone played as a right guard on the 1943 undefeated Glen Cove High varsity football team, which won the Rutgers Cup, awarded annually to Nassau County's top team. Upon graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy on a destroyer during World War II in 1944-45.

After the war, Martone received a bachelor’s degree in education in 1949 from SUNY Cortland. He was an assistant football coach for Sewanhaka High's varsity football team from 1949 to 1956, when the district split to found Carey High School. He became the athletic director and head football coach of the newly established school, starting its Hall of Fame, picking the Seahawk as a mascot and the University of Tennessee-inspired orange uniforms.

For the Martones, football was a family affair. Martone’s father, Al, is a Nassau football legend for whom Newsday named its Martone Award, which annually recognizes Nassau’s top lineman. Marc Martone’s late brothers also were head football coaches on Long Island. Charles Martone coached Mepham and Joseph Martone coached Island Trees. 

"If you tangled with one, you were tangling with three," Jones said.

A seasonlong honor

Carey’s football team honored Marc Martone before its 42-7 homecoming win over Baldwin High on Sept. 19. The back of every varsity and junior varsity helmet this season includes his initials, "MM." 

Yet, it’s the relationships he fostered with his players, both before and after graduation, that led to one of Martone’s most common sayings.

"He always said he had two daughters and 3,000 sons," Jones said. "He referred to them as sons, and they referred to him many times as a dad or a second dad. ... It was all about family. It wasn’t about winning a football game."

Martone led Carey to an undefeated 9-0 season in 1974, capturing the Rutgers Cup and becoming the first person to do so as both a player and head coach. It was his final year as head coach.

"He was the most ethical administrator I’ve ever been around," said Bob Walpole, who had joined Martone's Carey coaching staff in 1967.

Frank DeFalco played as the quarterback on the 1974 team, describing himself as a "stubborn, undisciplined 16-year-old kid."

"I probably gave him a more difficult time than most players," DeFalco said. "But that’s why I felt so close to him. ... Once I had learned the lessons that life teaches all of us, it was a different kind of relationship."

He described Martone as a "disciplinarian," but in "a fatherly way that we all respected."

DeFalco continued, "We were post-Vietnam War era, a group of kids growing up in a different generation. ... We loved the man, every one of us, to the day he passed. He was a tremendous human being in every respect."

Nothing spoke more to that than when Martone took in Paul "Rocky" Rochester, the 1955 Thorpe Award winner during his senior year at Sewanhaka High School. Rochester’s parents had both died within three months, and Martone, then an assistant coach, welcomed Rochester to his home as a foster child.

Rochester later became a member of the Jets’ 1969 Super Bowl team. The Martone home hosted barbecues and parties with legends like Joe Namath.

"That summer of ‘69, my parents had a barbecue at our home in Garden City Park for the Super Bowl team," Jones said. "That was always special to Dad, because, of course, it was your son. He was so proud of Paul."

Martone earned a master’s degree in education from Hofstra University in 1951, as well as sixth-year professional diplomas from New York University in 1956 and from Queens College in 1970.

Even later in life, living in Mount Sinai at The Bristal Assisted Living, he established Saturday morning boccie. It soon became a biweekly occurrence.

"He got people who were sitting around, glum, doing nothing, to come either play or be cheerleaders at boccie," Jones said. "That thrilled him more than the game."

Along with Jones, Martone is survived by another daughter, Cynthia Franklin, of Tennessee, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

By Michael Sicoli

michael.sicoli@newsday.com

Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.