Although he was born and grew up in Chicago, Canadeo attended college in the far west, at Gonzaga in Spokane, Washington. There he acquired the nickname “The Gray Ghost of Gonzaga” due to his prematurely graying hair.
What Canadeo was best known for were his years as a member of the Green Bay Packers, for whom he played from 1941 to 1952 (with the exception of most of 1944 and all of 1945, at the end of World War 2, when he was in the army). He was also in the Navy for awhile in 1943.