Tom Paolucci
Football
1997-98
Tom Paolucci was a member of three NCAA Division I-AA National Championship teams in his YSU career (1993, 1994 and 1997). As a senior, he was named First-team Gateway Conference. As well as being selected as an ESPN/Sportsticker Second-team All-American and CNN-SI second-team All-American.
A four-year letterwinner and captain on the ’97 team, Paolucci totaled 247 tackles, 10 of them for loss in his standout career. He was named the Vindicator/YSU Male Student-Athlete of the Year for 1997-98 school year.
In his senior season of 1997, he was the backbone of a stingy defense that propelled the Penguins to their fourth National Championship of the decade. While starting in all 15 games, he totaled 75 tackles, which were the third most on the team. He also had five tackle for losses, one interception as well as seven sacks which ranked him fourth only behind Harry Deligianis, Jarritt Goode and Mike Stanec.
During his junior year, Paolucci was second on the team that went 8-3 with 78 tackles while playing nine of the team’s eleven games. Four of his 78 tackles were behind the line of scrimmage. In 1996, the Warren JFK product had two kick-returns totaling 76 yards and a 57-yard punt return vs. Ashland. This performance earned him the One Hour Photo “Special Teams Player of the Game.” Paolucci had an 18-tackle game vs. Kent State which tied his career high which he set against Central Michigan in his sophomore season. He also had accumulated 13-tackles in a season opening shutout of Wofford.
In 1995, Paolucci’s sophomore season, he made 86 tackles which was second best on the team that year. To go along with playing linebacker, he also doubled up on special teams where he led the team with 27 kick-returns for 647 yards. His longest return that year was a 43-yarder against Stephen F. Austin. Three times throughout the ’95 season, he won the One Hour Photo “Special Teams Player of the Game.” In the season-opener at Kent State, Paolucci had 15-tackles. Against Central Michigan that same year, he set a career high in tackles for one game with 18.
In his redshirt freshman season of 1994, Tom Paolucci recorded 12 tackles and one interception in reserve action as Youngstown State won the National Championship, 28-14 over Boise State. In 1993, he redshirted as part of YSU’s National title winning team.
A graduate of Warren JFK in Warren, Ohio, he is the son of Dominic and Barbara Paolucci. He majored in Education and carried a 2.74 grade-point average.
