Bob Skoronski
The pinnacle of any football player has to be winning the Super Bowl and Derby's Bob Skoronski not only won the first two Super Bowls but captained the champion Green bay Packers who ushered in a whole new era of popularity for the National Football League. During his tenure with the Packers they won five NFL championships. Bob was born on March 4, 1934 and graduated from St. Michael's School while also being a member of Boy Scout Troup 3 and Explorer Post 33 in Derby. Bob began his football career as a junior at Fairfield Prep, often hitchhiking the 20 miles between home and school during football season. A successful career at Prep brought recruiting efforts from many of the biggest schools in college football including including Notre Dame, North Carolina, Holy Cross and Indiana University and Bob chose Indiana because IU offered his older brother, Frank, a football scholarship as well. Bob was a two-way starter for Indiana for three seasons, was named team captain and MVP. He was selected to play in the North-South football game and the College All-Star Game in 1956. A dean's list student at IU, he graduated with a degree in Business Administration in 1956 and an ROTC commission to the U. S. Air Force.
The Green Bay Packers selected Bob in the fifth round of the 1956 NFL
draft. Bob earned a starting position at right tackle in his rookie
season.
In 1957, Bob left the Packers to fulfill his two-year, ROTC commitment
in the U. S. Air Force at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. as
a Second Lieutenant. Not surprisingly, Bob was a member of the U. S. Air
Force National football team during his tenure in the Air Force which
included famous Notre Dame football stars, Joe Heap, Don Schaefer, Dan
Shannon and Ralph Guglielmi.
Bob's football career culminated in victories in the first two Super Bowl victories over Kansas City and Oakland. In 1966, he was named to the Pro Bowl team.
During each off season, Bob put his IU degree to work in several areas
of business including Jostens, the ring maker, where he designed and
sold the first two Green Bay Packer Super Bowl rings and later for the
Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl championship team of 1970. Throughout his football career and thereafter in business, Bob remained active and committed to a variety of community activities and charitable causes. Each year he organized and hosted a golf tournament to benefit the Alzheimer's Association which was attended by many of his Packer teammates, other NFL players, players from the NBA and former baseball stars, Tony Kubek of the Yankees and Sal Bando of the Oakland A's. He is also known to have assisted a number of athletes to secure scholarships to his alma mater, Indiana University, and elsewhere. He was a highly sought after motivational speaker at fundraisers and banquets throughout Wisconsin which would benefit young high school football players and athletes. He was generous with his time and resources. He passed away on October 30, 2018 in Madison, Wisconsin at the age of 84.
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