Zontini was born in Whitesville, West Virginia, in 1917 and attended Sherman High School in Seth, West Virginia.
He played college football for Notre Dame from 1937 to 1939.
He appeared in a total of 40 professional games, six of them as a starter.
[1] Zontini served in the Navy in 1945 and was a member of the undefeated 1945 Fleet City Bluejackets football team.
[citation needed] He was hired as an assistant football coach at Western Reserve University in 1948,[2] and was appointed as a full-time assistant coach in 1950.