Pueblo native coaching Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Joe Pannunzio, a Pueblo native, will be coaching the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl on Sunday, according to our partners at The Pueblo Chieftain.

Pannunzio was born and raised in Pueblo. He began his coaching career over 40 years ago as the wide receivers coach for his alma mater, the University of Southern Colorado (now Colorado State University Pueblo) in 1981. From there he went on to coach at Mesa College.

“I started coaching at Mesa College, and it was all fundamentals and techniques and it really was the same thing that was taught to me in high school and college at CSU Pueblo,” Pannunzio said. “It’s going to be the same thing for us Sunday night. For us to win, we got to play with great technique and great fundamentals, and if we do that, we have a great chance to beat the (Kansas City) Chiefs.” 

Moving on, Pannunzio became the head coach Murray State from 2000 to 2005 where they won the Ohio Valley Conference Championship in 2002. He then went to the University of Miami and eventually ended up at Alabama.

After a brief stint with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Pannunzio took a job with the Eagles in 2015. He returned to Alabama for the 2017 and 2018 seasons — missing the Eagles' 2018 Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots — before once again joining the Eagles on their coaching staff.  

Now, Pannunzio is a special teams coordinator for the Eagles.

The Eagles coach told the Pueblo Chieftain he credits much of his success to his experiences growing up in Pueblo. 

“I have two wonderful, wonderful parents,” Pannunzio said. “They taught us the value of working and ethics, and I think the city of Pueblo also has that — if you work hard and you do things the right way by impacting and touching people's lives, everything will always work out. There's always something bigger for us than just ourselves, and Pueblo gave that to me.”