University of Tennessee Athletics
1951 Champ Vince Kaseta Passes Away
January 26, 2015 | Football
Vince "Big Boss" Kaseta, a football letterman from 1949-51 and alternate captain for the 1951 National Championship team passed away on Monday following a brief illness.
Kaseta led the Volunteers with eight catches for 79 yards in the 1951 National Championship season, four of those receptions coming for touchdowns. He also led Tennessee with three touchdown catches in 1950. He finished his Tennessee career with 19 catches for 257 yards and seven touchdowns in an era where the ball in the air was still a relative novelty.
A native of Brockton, Mass., Kaseta was selected by the New York Yanks in the 16th round of the 1952 NFL Draft, one of eight Volunteers drafted that season.
Once more details are available on the services, they will be posted on UTSports.com.
Here is the obituary from the Knoxville News Sentinel
Vince Kaseta, starting right end on Tennessee's 1950 and 1951 national championship teams, died Monday morning at his home in Plymouth, Mass., after an extended illness. He was 87.
Mr. Kaseta came to Tennessee from Brockton, Mass., and lettered from 1949-51, at left end as a sophomore and at right end in his final two seasons. He played alongside right tackle Jim Haslam those two seasons.
"Vince and Andy Kozar were my roommates in East Stadium Hall," said Haslam. "He had been in the service and was three or four years older than the rest of us. We called him `The Boss.' "
Mr. Kaseta was a 1946 graduate of Brockton High School and was inducted into the Brockton High School Hall of Fame in 1971.
It was a different time on the Tennessee campus in his day, a neatly contained world, as former Vol Bob Davis has noted. Life was circumscribed around Shields-Watkins Field, where the team lived and ate, and played on Saturday afternoons. They climbed the numerous steps from the stadium to the top of The Hill, where classes were held.
Mr. Kaseta was part of the legendary 1948 recruiting class that brought Kozar, Hank Lauricella, Davis, Haslam, Herky Payne, Jimmy Hahn, 1951 captain Bert Rechichar, and others to Knoxville.
As a Vol, Mr. Kaseta was alternate captain of the 1951 national championship team (serving under Rechichar), playing at 6-feet, 183 pounds, and wearing No. 25. He caught five passes for 80 yards in 1949 and six passes for 98 yards and three scores in 1950.
He caught touchdown passes in 1951 against Mississippi State and Alabama and added two scores against Kentucky. For the season, he caught eight passes for 79 yards.
"He was more mature and more serious about his school work than the rest of us because he'd been in the service," Payne said. "He was a good blocker. He and Rechichar could block about anybody."
Mr. Kaseta had a key block on Lauricella's 75-yard run that led to Tennessee's first touchdown against Texas in the 1951 Cotton Bowl.
The New York Yanks drafted Mr. Kaseta in the 16th round of the 1952 NFL draft at No. 182. He was one of eight Vols drafted that season.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Tennessee in 1952.
He retired in 1992 as senior vice president of AGFA, a company owned by Bayer Aspirin.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
