Dr. Daniel C. Minocchi

Dr. Daniel C. Minocchi, of Clarence, NY entered into rest on February 3, 2025 at age 42. Beloved husband of Devon (nee Russell) Minocchi; devoted father of Gabriella and Christopher Minocchi; loving son of Kathleen (nee Blogna) and Frank Minocchi; dear brother of Joseph (Carrie) Minocchi; cherished son-in-law of Barry and Claudia Russell; fond brother-in-law of Adam (Kathleen) Russell and Emily (Alison Selsky) Russell-Selsky; adored uncle of Dominic Minocchi, Carmela Minocchi, Peyton Russell, Kendall Russell, Sidney Selsky, Lily Selsky and Ryan Selsky; also survived by cousins, Godchildren and many friends and patients. Dan was a UB football player, a successful chiropractor and was active in coaching. Relatives and friends may visit PERNA, DENGLER, ROBERTS FUNERAL HOME, 1671 Maple Rd., Williamsville, NY 14221 on Monday (February 10, 2025) from 4-8pm. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Gregory the Great Church, 200 St. Gregory Ct., Williamsville, NY 14221 on Tuesday (February 11, 2025) at 10am. Please assemble at church.

A post from the Town of Clarence Baseball Association's website regarding Dan's passing:

To the Clarence Baseball family,

This week, our organization lost a great man. Dan Minocchi was called home on February 3rd, 2025. He was a pillar in our community and an inspirational example of how to live. Dan leaves behind two amazing children, Gabby and Christopher, and a beautiful wife, Devon. If your child was lucky enough to play for Dan, then his character needs no introduction. But in case you haven't crossed paths, let us tell you a little bit about the amazing man he was. Before taking on a coaching role as a father, Dan was an athlete himself. He excelled at football and was so good he played for the University at Buffalo. He became a doctor, a certified Chiropractic Sports Physician and helped so many people including countless members of the UB football team that he loved. His exceptional work ethic pervaded into all aspects of his life... including his coaching.

Many of us had the great fortune to become friends with Dan over his years with Clarence Baseball. He was a beloved coach for several of our teams. We had an up-close view of all the many qualities Dan possessed. The courage and the perseverance he showed when life dealt him a terrible hand was truly inspirational to so many. Dan never complained about his cancer, or losing his leg. Within days of his surgery, he was back to helping others. He continued treating his patients on crutches by day and hitting ground balls to kids by night. He simply kept living his life with grace and courage, and he never stopped being a loving father and husband.

There's a void in our baseball community without him and our thoughts and prayers are with his family as we mourn with you. Today, we can take solace in knowing that Dan has left an indelible legacy behind. We hope that his family takes comfort in knowing that he loved them with everything he had and leaves us all the example of how a man should live. We are all better for knowing Dan.

Rest in peace Dan, you will be missed but never forgotten.

Dan's obituary from the Canton Repository:

“Dan? This is Dan.”

Breaking an age-old Stark County track and field record that belonged to local legend Dan Dierdorf was the memory of a lifetime for Central Catholic's Dan Minocchi.

Waking up to a phone call from the Pro Football Hall of Famer made it perfect.

Friends share the story as they mourn the loss of Dr. Daniel C. Minocchi, who died of complications from cancer this week. Minocchi, who was 42, is survived by his wife and two school-aged children who live in Clarence, New York, near Buffalo. His parents, Frank and Kathy Minocchi, live in the Massillon area.

Long after Dan left to be a four-year University of Buffalo lineman, everyone who bought a hot dog couldn’t help but to notice the very large man running Central Catholic’s football concession stand. That was Frank.

Dan Minocchi was worth the price of admission. He made first-team All-Ohio twice as a Crusaders offensive tackle. He was listed as a 6-foot-3, 290-pound senior on the 1999 All-Ohio team whose first-team quarterback was Willard’s Charlie Frye.

The Crusaders didn’t win a state championship until a year later, when Minocchi was gone to Buffalo, but the ’99 team gave a Game 9 teaser against state power Orrville.

“We scored near the and were down by a point,” then-head coach Lowell Klinefelter recalls. “We went for 2 and called a trap, with Dan trapping. The Orrville guy was ready to make the tackle when all of a sudden Dan came over and wiped him out.”

The final was 29-28, Central Catholic.

Current Central Catholic head coach Jeff Lindesmith was offensive line coach then.

“Dan was a big, strong kid who understood the importance of being prepared,” Lindesmith said. “He worked very hard in football, and he worked very hard at throwing the shot and discus. I remember how important it was to him to break Dierdorf’s record.

“It was one of those records old-timers thought would never be broken, like DiMaggio’s hitting streak.”

Dan Dierdorf had one of the most famous faces in football, not so much because he was an All-American offensive lineman at Michigan and then went from the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals to the Hall of Fame, but more for his jovial presence in the heyday of "Monday Night Football."

Dierdorf was in the booth with Al Michaels and Frank Gifford when Minocchi came through Central Catholic. Seldom did a Monday go by when Dierdorf didn’t mention Canton.

A favorite Dierdorf story was setting the Stark County record while at Glenwood High School in the mid-1960s. It is forgotten that the fabled heave, 60 feet, 8 inches, didn’t come in either of Dierdorf’s state meets, in which he placed second as a junior and third as a senior.

Shot putters approached “the Dierdorf line” over the years. Chris Spielman, for example, went 58 feet to place third at the 1984 state meet.

But Dierdorf’s mark stood like Plymouth Rock 33 years later, when Minocchi was a senior in the spring of 2000.

John Butchko, who met Minocchi in first grade at Massillon St. Mary, fully believed by then.

“Dan was Paul Bunyan,” said Butchko, now the head football coach at Bucyrus High School. “He had super-human strength. He was genetically and intellectually gifted. Anything he wanted to do he did great.

“He was as violent as you needed to be to be a good football player, but he had a tender heart.

“He cared people. His big smile would disarm anybody.

“His brother Joey and I were just talking about how light on his feet he was for as big as he was.

“In junior high, he carried around a shot put in a ripped-up St. Mary’s backpack.

“In high school, he broke Dierdorf’s record at a home meet. He almost cried. Dierdorf called him at 6 the next morning.”

Working with "throws coach" Joe Bartolone, Minocchi further one-upped Dierdorf at the state meet. He went back and forth with a bruiser from Cleveland Benedictine, Scott Mruozkowsic, and trailed going into the final round of throws. Then he broke his own record, winning a state championship with a 61-9 ¾ bomb.

Minocchi met his future wife, a soccer star named Devon, at the University of Buffalo. They settled in the Niagara Falls region and had two children, Gabriella and Christopher. Dan became a chiropractor who developed his own business and worked with the university.

Word of Minocchi’s passing spread through the Central Catholic community.

“He was one of those larger than life guys who lived for other people and was taken from us too early,” said Jim Sicker, a longtime Central Catholic teacher and coach. “A guy that big commands attention, but he didn’t have a mean bone in his body. He was as friendly and had as good a sense of humor as anyone you would meet.

“He was a special guy right from youth right to the day died.”

Minocchi battled cancer for a while.

“His attitude was, ‘I’m going to beat it, like I do everything else,’” Butchko said. “Losing him makes you think about the things you believe in.

“He practiced the things he learned growing up with Frank and Kathy. They made my life immeasurably better.

“He had a very, very amazing value system, in line with the faith Central Catholic teaches, and is reinforced at home.”

Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Monday, at Perna, Dengler, Roberts Funeral Home,1671 Maple Rd., Williamsville, New York. A mass of Christian burial will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at 10 a.m. Tuesday in St. Gregory the Great Church, 200 St Gregory Court, Williamsville.

Dan's obituary from the Buffalo News:

Dr. Daniel C. Minocchi, a former University at Buffalo football player who became the first chiropractor in UB’s Athletic Department, died unexpectedly Feb. 3 in Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was 42.

Dr. Minocchi, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound offensive lineman, played four years for the Bulls before he graduated in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and nutrition. He went on to attend the Doctor of Chiropractic program at what is now Northeast College of Health Sciences in Seneca Falls, where he was a member of the Phi Chi Omega honor society.

He worked alongside other another chiropractor in Buffalo’s Riverside neighborhood and had his own office in Sports Performance Park in Eastern Hills Mall before he opened RecoverLab Performance Chiropractic on Wehrle Drive in Williamsville about five years ago. He was certified as a chiropractic sports physician and held an International Certificate of Sports Chiropractic, which qualified him to provide services for international competitions, including the Olympic Games.

UB accepted his offer to become an athletic chiropractor and he was in the locker room and on the sidelines at every home football game, attending the needs of players, through the season that just ended.

The son of Frank and Kathleen Blogna Minocchi and the younger of two boys, he grew up in Massillon, Ohio. His father, a retired insurance company representative, and his mother, a retired registered nurse, also operated a catering business known for its Italian dishes.

He was a star athlete at Canton Central Catholic High School, where he graduated in 2000. A two-time All-Ohio offensive lineman on the football team, he is best remembered for setting a county and division record of 61 feet, 9¾ inches in the shot put, which broke a mark by Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf that had stood since the 1960s. Trained by his father, who was shot putter in high school, he also competed in the event with the UB track team. He is depicted on a newly installed mural at Central Catholic’s athletic field.

He met Devon W. Russell, a player on the UB women’s soccer team, on a blind date arranged by her twin sister, also a UB soccer player, and another teammate who were in a class with him. They were married Sept. 5, 2010, in Albany, her hometown.

Dr. Minocchi was revered by organizers, parents and players in the Town of Clarence Baseball Association, where he was a coach. A tribute on its website noted that he continued his chiropractic practice and his coaching duties despite losing part of a leg to cancer surgery. One of his legs was amputated at the knee in November 2023.

“He was back in the office a week and a half later,” his wife said. “He did not want to be away from his patients. If anything, it motivated him more. All he cared about was giving back.”

“He continued treating his patients on crutches by day and hitting ground balls to kids by night,” the Baseball Association’s tribute said. “He simply kept living his life with grace and courage.”

In addition to his wife, a pharmaceutical company representative, survivors include a daughter, Gabriella; a son, Christopher; his parents; a brother, Joseph; and nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Tuesday in St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, 200 St. Gregory Court at Maple Road, Amherst.