| YEAR |
MILESTONE |
| 1943 |
1st Morristown High School grad to make All-State football |
| 1944-45 |
Cheshire Academy prep school : Won “Mr. Cheshire” award for athlete, scholar and gentleman. Lettered in Baseball, Football, Basketball. |
| 1945-49 |
Graduated from University of Notre Dame in 3 ½ years. Earned 4 letters in football. Played for '46 National championship team. Starting fullback for ‘47 National Championship team. Starting fullback for #2 undefeated rank team. AP third team All-American. All American on Frank Leahy and Bill Stearns teams. |
| 1948 |
Awarded UNICO (Italian American) “Most Outstanding Athlete” trophy |
| 1949 |
Awarded William Coffman trophy for “Most Outstanding Player” in the East-West Shrine all-star game. Played in Chicago Tribune All-Star game. |
| 1949-50 |
Detroit Lions #1 draft pick and 12th in the overall draft. Played with the Lions as starting fullback and linebacker for 2 seasons. |
| 1951-53 |
Played 3 seasons as defensive fullback and defensive captain for Chicago Cardinals. |
| 1956 |
Founded J.R. Panelli Equipment Co., a heavy construction equipment dealership. |
| 1957 |
President of the Michigan Dealers Association |
| 1957-58 |
President of the Notre Dame Monogram Club.
President of Detroit Lions Alumni Association. |
| 1959-60 |
A founding member and 3rd President of the Detroit Chapter of the National Football Foundation & Hall of Fame. |
| 1963 |
President - Notre Dame Club of Detroit (served on board for 9 years) |
| 1964-65 |
President of the Birmingham Country Club |
| 1965 |
Notre Dame Club of Detroit – “Man of the Year” award |
| 1965-80 |
Assisted ND football coaches by actively recruiting High School talent to play ball at ND. Recruits included Greg Marx, Greg Collins, John Ciskowski, Drew Mahalik. |
| 1968 |
Trustee of NFL Alumni Foundation Trust |
| 1968 |
Inducted into the Willie Heston Michigan Sports Hall of Fame |
| 1970-72 |
Founding member and 2nd President of National Football League Alumni Association. (served as Vice President for 17 years until 1990; 12 years as Chair of Executive Committee). |
| 1971-73 |
Vice President of University of Notre Dame Alumni Board in charge of Academic Affairs. |
| 1970-99 |
Won the Birmingham Country Club Invitational Golf tournament an unprecedented 10 times with his pal Bud Stevens. |
| 1995 |
Inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame |
| 1984 |
Member of the Cherry Bowl selection Committee |
| 1991 |
Received the Joseph Carey Distinguished American Award presented by the Michigan Chapter of the National Football Foundation |
| 1995 |
Inducted into the Cheshire Academy Hall of Fame |
| 1997 |
Winner of the All-American Football Foundation's “Unsung Hero Award” |
| 1999 |
Inducted into the Morristown High School Hall of Fame |
| 2000 |
Made the Newark Star-Ledger All-Century New Jersey High School team. |
| 2000 |
Inducted into the Birmingham Country Club Hall of Fame |
| 2001 |
John Panelli was given a chapter in Ara Parsegian's book "What it means to be Fighting Irish - Ara Parsegian and NotreDame's Greatest Players" |
| 1949-2005 |
Involved in many charity activities helping to organize celebrity golf .
Fundraisers including the Saint Louis Center and the NFL Alumni Super Bowl of Golf series. |
