Former Michigan State Football team chaplain Father John ‘Jake’ Foglio passes away

Long-time Michigan State fixture Father Jake Foglio has passed away.

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For over 40 years, Father John ‘Jake’ Foglio has been a fixture in the Michigan State athletics community, consulting the likes of Duffy Daugherty, Tom Izzo, and Mark Dantonio. On Monday, we at SpartansWire, and members of the Michigan State community around the world, were saddened to learn that Father Jake had passed away.

Father Jake had been the team chaplain for the football team for years and has been a fixture around the program ever since. He was so important to the fabric of the MSU community that the College of Arts and Letters even created the Foglio Chair of Spirituality to commemorate the local legend and, really, spiritual advisor to many leaders in the Michigan State athletics community over the years.

Foglio graduated from Michigan State in 1951 and worked for WKAR in East Lansing as a post-grad. He then served in the United State Marine Corps before becoming ordained as a priest in 1961. He served at St. John’s Student Parish in East Lansing since 1970 and served as an assistant professor in the MSU Department of Family Medicine from 1986 to 1997.

Father Jake Foglio was born in 1930. Rest in peace to someone who touched a lot of hearts and minds in the Michigan State community for decades.

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