Chuck Zapiec
American football player
Charles Zapiec (born July 1, 1949) is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Ottawa Rough Riders and Montreal Alouettes. He earned his All-American status as a linebacker in the only year that he played linebacker at "Linebacker U". Prior to his senior year, he also started two seasons as an offensive guard and helped his team to undefeated seasons in 1968 and 1969. He was selected in the fourth round of the 1972 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys.
Early life
Zapiec started every game at Penn State that he was eligible for and graduated with the best record of any Penn State Player ever, 34 and 1, winning two Orange Bowls, defeating Kansas and Missouri, and one Cotton Bowl, a win over Texas.
"Big Daddy Z", as he was known by his friends and coach Paterno, started as an offensive guard his sophomore and junior years when the Nittany Lions went undefeated in 1968 and 1969. "Big Z" was named to the All-America Blocking Team selected by Wirt Gammon of the Chattanooga Times in 1969. As an Offensive Guard he earned All-East Honors each Year and was an Honorable Mention All American selection in 1969.
He is best remembered in Penn State annals as the lead blocker that took out Kansas All-American John Zook at the goal line that allowed Bobby Campbell to score a 2-point conversion that lead to a Nittany Lion 15-14 Orange Bowl Victory with no time on the clock. This successful try followed an errant pass on the first 2-point attempt when Kansas was penalized for having 12 men on the field.
The public source identifies “Chuck Zapiec” as american football player. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Chuck, Zapiec and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5115854. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1968, 1969 and 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chuck Zapiec” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.