Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

Charles Margiotti's life changed the day his employer- a haberdasher-sent him on an errand to a courtroom, where he witnessed a hearing before a justice of the peace.
Entranced by what was surely a trivial case, Margiotti decided then and there that he would pursue a career in Law. He ultimately earned national acclaim as a criminal attorney and even argued cases before the United States Supreme Court.
A graduate of Punxsutawney Area High School, Margiotti was a standout guard for the football team at Indiana Normal School, the forerunner of IUP. The same bulldog tenacity he displayed in the trenches was later on display in the courtroom. Margiotti, who experienced few defeats in football, maintained a nearly spotless record in trials. He represented more than 150 clients in murder cases, with only one first degree verdict against him.
Margiotti also served as Pennsylvania's State Attorney General (1935-38, 1950-51) under three different governors and even ran for governor himself in 1934, losing out to William A. Schnader.
Long before he became a force in the courtroom, Margiotti was a force on the field. He played two seasons of football at Indiana Normal School- then a two-year institution- and contributed significantly to the success of the team. Indiana finished 6-2 in 1910 and 6-2-1 in 1911, outscoring the opposition 306-25 in the process. Included were 44-0 and 42-0 victories over Pitt's freshman team. The 1911 squad was coached by Frank Mount Pleasant, a Tuscarora Indian who was inducted into the IUP Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.
Football was but one of Margiotti's many extracurricular activities at Indiana Normal School. For example, he was a champion debater for the INS team and served as president of the Erodelphian Literary Society, editor of the Sophist, a school newspaper, and business manager of the lnstano, the school yearbook.
Margiotti graduated from Indiana Normal School in 1912, then earned a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1915 before embarking on a distinguished career in the courtroom. Upon his death, one newspaper hailed him as a "nationally noted criminal lawyer." Margiotti practiced in a dozen states, 41 counties in Pennsylvania and before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He did not limit his efforts to the courtroom. Margiotti authored a number of books-among them The State Constitution of the Future, Gang Up on Crime, and The New Deal in the War Against Crime-served on the Board of Trustees at St. Francis College in Loretto, operated several strip mines and lumber mills and owned what the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called a "sizable chunk" of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Margiotti and his wife, Denise, had two children, Juliette and Charles, and three grandchildren: Charles, Denise and Tom.