Ed Augusiewicz

• Post by: mcalibrary
• December 20, 2023
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INDUCTEE

Ed Augusiewicz’s story sounds like a dozen others you’ve heard regarding terrific Coal Region athletes whose lives and careers were cut short by the intervention of World War II, or family pressures. After a bang-up career at Mount Carmel High, where he led his team to a 9-1-1 record as a senior, Augusiewicz enrolled at Wake Forest University. He did well as a frosh for Coach “Peahead” Walker and was counted on to be part of the starting defense as a sophomore.

There was a war going on, though. And like so many other patriotic young men of the time, Eddie Augusiewicz heard the call to arms. He enlisted in the Army and was assigned to one of the glamour groups as a paratrooper. Within a year he was far from Mount Carmel…serving as part of a regiment chosen to attack Anzio Beach. You historians will know that this battle was one of the most important and fiercely-fought of the War. Practically his entire regiment was annihilated at Anzio. Very few returned unscathed; and many like Eddie had wounds so severe their lives were altered forever. He had a leg wound that kept him from ever playing football again, even though he re-enrolled at Wake Forest to give it a try.

Since he was unable to play football, he dropped out of Wake Forest and took a job with the Postal Service in Washington, DC. He remained there until his death of a heart attack.