Pat Cannamela


Patterson N. "Pat" Cannamela was an American football player. A native of New London, Connecticut, Cannamela moved west and enrolled in Ventura College in 1948 and played football there during the 1948 and 1949 season. He won a scholarship to the University of Southern California in 1950 and played at the offensive guard and linebacker positions for the USC Trojans football team during the 1950 and 1951 seasons. He was selected by the Football Writers Association of America, the International News Service, and the Newspaper Enterprise Association as a first-team player on their 1951 College Football All-America Teams. He was drafted by the Dallas Texans in the 11th round of the 1952 NFL Draft and played for the Texans as a linebacker during the 1952 NFL season. In 1973, Cannamela was shot and killed during a robbery at the Zody's Discount Store on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, where he was working as an appliance salesman. He was posthumously inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.