John Spagnola
player of American football

John Stephen Spagnola (born August 1, 1957) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks, and the Green Bay Packers. He played college football for the Yale Bulldogs.
Early life and education
Spagnola was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As a Boy Scout at Notre Dame Elementary School, he was awarded the Eagle Scout rank, and was inducted into the Eagle Scout Hall of Fame.
High school career
He attended Bethlehem Catholic High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he played wide receiver and linebacker. Bethlehem Catholic went 11-0-0 in 1974 with Spagnola as one of the team captains. He was a grade school and high school classmate of running back Mike Guman (Bethlehem Catholic, 1976), who later starred at Penn State and played 10 seasons in the National Football League with the Los Angeles Rams.
Collegiate career
After his 1975 graduation from Bethlehem Catholic, he attended Yale University, where he played wide receiver. He graduated in 1979 as the university's all-time leading wide receiver in receptions (88) and yards (1554). He was an honorable mention All-American tight end at Yale in 1979.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Spagnola” is player of American football. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Spagnola and player, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “player of American football” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14950854. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1974, 1976 and 1975.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “John Spagnola”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow John Spagnola primary sources, John Spagnola archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Spagnola”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “John Spagnola” 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.