He was the son of Italian immigrants Ernesto (later Ernest) and Maria (Dalforte) from Lucca, Italy in Tuscany.

Not wanting a coal mining life, the family moved to Antioch, California when Marchetti was young, where Ernest opened the Nevada Club which served food and drinks, and operated legal poker games.

Even after she was no longer subject to being interned as an enemy alien, she was cast out of Antioch as a supposed threat to national security.

Marchetti arrived for combat in Europe around the time of the end of the Battle of the Bulge as a machine gunner.

Among his experiences, Marchetti said, "'The first time I saw snow, I slept in it...."[4][2] His company was the first to make contact with Russian soldiers during the war's end.

[8] He later attended Modesto Junior College for one year before joining the football program at the University of San Francisco (USF).

In addition to Marchetti, that team had two other future NFL Hall of Fame players, Ollie Matson and Bob.

Linebacker Burl Toler's NFL playing career ended before it started when he suffered a shattering knee injury during a college all-star game in 1952.

[4][12] Marchetti believed his mother's poor treatment in Antioch may have been the source of his standing up for Matson and Toler.

[4] Marchetti and Matson were inducted into the NFL hall of fame on the same day in 1972, the first year they were eligible for inclusion.

[13][10] In Toler's early years as an NFL linesman, he was working a game between the Colts and Green Bay Packers in Milwaukee.

[15] In Dallas, he once volunteered to substitute at tight end because there was no one else left to play the position, and caught a touchdown pass.

He made a big play in the 1958 NFL Championship Game when he prevented the New York Giants from gaining a first down by tackling Frank Gifford just a foot short of the first down mark.

[2] He fractured his ankle on that same play but, as a team captain, insisted on watching the rest of the historic overtime contest from the sideline with his teammates rather than seeking immediate medical attention in the locker room.

[18][2] Hall of fame quarterback Bobby Layne "said being sacked by Marchetti was like 'running into a tree trunk in the dark.

'"[9] Marchetti's stellar play led to his being called by Sid Gillman, the Los Angeles Rams head coach, "(T)he greatest player in football.

"[20] His Hall of Fame teammate Art Donovan had this to say about him: "For his first couple of years with the Colts, Gino Marchetti was our enforcer.

Gino was a tough kid from the ghetto.... An Antioch recruiter had spotted the big hulk at the racetrack one day and brought him along to the head coach.

He could also kick some ass, and that particular talent gained him quite a reputation as not only perhaps the greatest defensive end to ever play the game, but also as a dirty, cheap-shot artist.

Of his Colts and their connection to Baltimore, Marchetti said, "'We were like the great high school team in a small town.

In turn, Marchetti appreciated Unitas for his honesty with himself and others, and his workmanlike, no-excuses, no-nonsense leadership as a quarterback.

[6] Shula believed Marchetti revolutionized defensive end play through the use of techniques to get past the offensive tackles trying to block him, rather than only using the pure force of bull rushes.

It was a successful Mid-Atlantic regional fast-food chain and had 313 company-owned locations when they were sold in 1982 to Marriott International, which abandoned the name in favor of their Roy Rogers restaurants.

[34] Marchetti's grandson Keith Carter was a tight end for UCLA and won a Super Bowl as a coach for the Seattle Seahawks.

[35] After his marriage to Flora Etta Beck ended in divorce, Gino married Joan Plecenik in 1978.