Bio

Joe Saia

Perkinston Junior College (1947-1948) / Coach (Football)
Shaw, Mississippi

Growing up in the Delta town of Shaw, Saia lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and track, and in his senior year he captained the football, basketball, and baseball teams. 

Saia joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 and served in the Mediterranean Theater as a top turret gunner and navigator on a B-24 Liberator Bomber in raids on the oil fields of Ploesti, Romania.  Master Sergeant Saia, for gallantry in action, was awarded the Silver Star, the Air Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.  Honorably discharged due to injuries, he returned to Shaw in 1943 and entered nearby Mississippi Delta Junior College at Moorhead.  Saia soon transferred to Mississippi State University where he lettered in football and baseball for four years receiving All-American honors in 1945.

Graduating from Mississippi State with a B.S. in business in May 1947, he signed a contract at Perkinston Junior College to begin August 15, 1947, as assistant to new head coach Marvin “Red” Campbell of New Albany.  Campbell and Saia used the 8 wins and 3 losses of the 1947 season to lay the groundwork for 1948 — the first undefeated and untied season in the history of Perkinston Junior College football.  On December 17, 1948, at the close of this magnificent 12-0 season, the Paul B. Williamson Rating System of New Orleans declared Perkinston Junior College and Compton (California) Junior College to be National Junior College Football Co-Champions.  On January 20, 1949, at a banquet in the school cafeteria, Perkinston Junior College President A. L. May presented gold wristwatches to Coaches Campbell and Saia. 

Nolan Tollett replaced Campbell for the 1949 season, and Saia became his line coach in a very respectable 9-2-1 season that saw the first game played in the new Perkinston Football Stadium — a September 17, 1949, victory over Jones County Junior College.

In spring 1950 Saia, formerly assistant baseball coach, became head baseball coach.  In fall 1950 Saia and Tollett once again took the field, but the line that Saia had developed and relied on to deliver three years of victories was no longer there — hence a miserable 2-6-2 season.  In spring 1951 Saia once more functioned as head baseball coach, but at the end of the season he left coaching and went into business.  For many years he owned Wiggins Laundry and Dry Cleaning which laundered the sports and band uniforms of the Perkinston institution.  

Saia never forgot the glorious year of 1948 and attended homecoming reunions at Perkinston honoring the 1948 team. The 1955 reunion of the 1948 team was held at Homecoming, Saturday, October 8, and all players and coaches, including Saia, were presented with lifetime passes to Perkinston ballgames.  Joe Saia was too ill to attend the 1976 Homecoming banquet honoring championship coaches.  He died May 5, 1988.

His name appears on the plaque dedicated to the 1948 co-national championship team erected on the Perkinston Campus in 1999.  Three of his four sons attended Perk.