The Colorado State Fair Parade Committee on Tuesday announced the 2023 parade marshals, including a former Colorado State University Pueblo head football coach and the owners of a popular Italian restaurant in Pueblo.

John Wristen, a former head coach for CSU Pueblo football, is the parade’s grand marshal. Tom and Anna Marie Giodone of Giodone’s Italian Bar & Grill are named parade marshals.

This year’s parade is themed “Colorado … Mountains of Fun,” and is scheduled for Aug. 26 at 10 a.m.

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Wristen, who restarted the CSU Pueblo football program in 2007 and turned it into NCAA Division II national champions, finished his 15th and final season as head football coach at CSU Pueblo last year, according to a Tuesday news release from the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce.

Before he returned to Pueblo, Wristen coached in the NCAA Division I ranks for 17 years at the University of Colorado, Northwestern University and UCLA.

In the 2006 season, Wristen was the special teams and tight ends coach at UCLA, and prior to that served at Colorado from 1999 to 2006, the release states. He helped guide the Buffaloes to four Big 12 North Division Championships and the Big 12 title in 2001. There, he coached tight ends and the kickoff and punt teams, and in 2003 took on recruiting coordinator responsibilities, according to the chamber’s release.

Wristen was named Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five consecutive times from 2011-2015 and again in 2017. He also has seven RMAC championships and eight appearances in the NCAA Division II playoffs between 2011-2022 under his belt, the release states.

His final Thunderwolves football team finished the 2022 season with an 8-4 record and a 7-2 record in the RMAC. Wristen’s team opened last season with three out of four losses, but closed the regular season with seven consecutive wins, earning the program’s eighth NCAA playoff appearance, according to the release.

Wristen currently serves as an athletics development and external relations officer with CSU Pueblo Athletics.

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Tom and Anna Marie Giodone married in 1962 and raised their two children on the St. Charles Mesa, growing a former pool hall into the popular Giodone’s Italian Bar & Grill.

The couple has had several venues and stands on the Colorado state fairgrounds over the years, first participating as vendors in the state fair in 1987, the release states.

In 2014 the Pueblo City-County Library District used the couple’s names for its public library at 24655 U.S. 50E in Pueblo – just across from their restaurant, naming it the Tom L. & Anna Marie Giodone Library.

“We are both so humbled by the community, Colorado State Fair and the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce for being named the parade marshals for the 2023 Colorado State Fair parade. This makes us so very happy and thrilled to be a part of something so grand,” the Giodones said in the release.

For more information about the Colorado State Fair parade, call Terri Kallish at 719-542-1704 or visit pueblochamber.org.

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