AL CARAPELLA

University of Miami  |  1948 • 1949 • 1950

1951 NFL Draft • Round 4 • 54th Overall

It's all about collecting The U, a collection featuring 524 alumni of the University of Miami football program.
  • Miami Hurricanes Football
  • Currently Enrolled Players & Commits

Al Carapella Football Cards

It's All About Collecting The U!

With over 525 player alumni and staff from the University of Miami Football program represented, I believe my Hurricanes card collection is the most expansive in existence. It includes players that have been inducted into Hall of Fames through practice squad members and those that merely committed and walked away before the season began. Also represented are head coaches, assistants, and other staff members of the program. Along with traditional football cards, I also count similar flat collectables like pocket schedules and ticket stubs.

The Card Album is my personal collection showcase. I originally designed my first website, CardMagnet.info, from scratch in Microsoft FrontPage and used tables to organize things. The site was updated regularly 2009 to 2021. I’m proud to say that I had regular viewers from around the world, and my content was frequently in the top results on Google’s web and image results. The time came to put some new tools and ideas to use, and so TheCardAlbum.com was born.

About Al Carapella

Al Carapella (April 26, 1927 – October 17, 2020) was an American and Canadian football defensive tackle who played for the San Francisco 49ers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Upon graduating from Tuckahoe High School in 1945, Carapella was drafted into the United States Army. Carapella was deployed to Germany, where he played football with the Berlin Bears, an interservice team composed of several college and NFL football players. Upon noticing that he could compete with players of that caliber, Carapella decided to pursue football when he was discharged from the Army. He asked his former high school coach to try to set up some workouts with college programs, and Carapella was invited to try out for the Miami and Kentucky. Carapella garnered scholarship offers from both schools, but his offer letter from Kentucky was addressed to his uncle by mistake, and he was unaware of the offer until after he had enrolled at Miami.

During his first year at Miami, Carapella played on the freshman football team, playing offensive line and fullback. In his senior year, Carapella helped lead the undefeated Hurricanes to an Orange Bowl berth, where they were defeated by Clemson by a score of 15-14 after Miami surrendered a late safety.