"Big Daddy Z", as he was known by his friends and coach Paterno, started as an offensive guard his sophomore and junior years when the Nittany Lions went undefeated in 1968 and 1969.

[1] He is best remembered in Penn State annals as the lead blocker that took out Kansas All-American John Zook at the goal line that allowed Bobby Campbell to score a 2-point conversion that lead to a Nittany Lion 15-14 Orange Bowl Victory with no time on the clock.

George Plimpton, author of the book and movie Paper Lion, went on to characterize Zapiec's block on Zook as the most important block in college football, equivalent to Jerry Kramer taking out Jethro Pugh at the goal line to allow Bart Starr to score in the 1967 NFL Championship.

Switching to defense for the 1970 Season, Big Z was moved from guard to middle linebacker,[3] a position he was destined to play after idolizing his boyhood hero Chuck Bednarik, aka, "Concrete Charlie".

Bednarik was the last of the two-way performers in the NFL leading the Philadelphia Eagles to the 1960 championship over Vince Lombardi's Packers when he played Center and Middle Linebacker for 60 minutes.

[4] The next year, he returned to the defensive side of the ball moving to outside linebacker, captaining the team and earning First-team All-American honors.

A medical setback sent him on rest and recovery vacation to Hilton Head in 1997 where he started investing in real estate.

Using his technology background, he was one of the first vacation rental companies to advertise on the Internet and he used that advantage to grow his real estate holdings over the next 10 years.