Zilly played right end at the University of Notre Dame on their national championship team in 1943. During World War II, he served two years in the Navy, fighting in the Pacific. After the war, he returned to Notre Dame to help guide that team to another national championship in 1946. While Zilly was a sixth round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers of the All-America Football Conference, he did not play for that team.[4] Instead as a fourth round draft pick for the then-Cleveland Rams in 1945, he played six seasons in the NFL for the L. A. Rams and the 1952 Eagles. While in California, Zilly also appeared in five movies, the best-known being Twelve O'Clock High.
Coaching
In 1955, Zilly was named varsity baseball and freshman football and basketball coach at Montana State.[5] He returned to his alma mater in 1956 as an assistant under Terry Brennan, then joined the coaching staff at Brown in 1959. From 1963 to 1969, Zilly was the head coach at Rhode Island. He compiled a 21-41-2 record, with his only winning season coming in 1967.[6] In 1970, he became the running backs coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.[7] In 1972, Eagles head coach Jerry Williams was hired by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League and Zilly joined him as an assistant.[8]
