Raised in
Detroit, Trafeli attended
University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. He began speedskating at 14 and was nationally ranked within a year of starting on the track. In January 1947, he became the youngest winner of the North American Outdoor Speedskating Championship, winning at the age of 18 a race covering held at
Belle Isle Park in Detroit against top American and Canadian competitors. Trafeli won the International Race of Champions, a distance race at
Madison Square Garden, in both 1952 and 1954. During his career, he set five United States records at various distances and won the Michigan Indoor Short Track Champion on six occasions. His accomplishments during his skating career earned him induction into the Michigan Amateur Sports Hall of Fame in 1982, and the National Speedskating Hall of Fame, the
National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (where he was the first speedskater to be inducted) and the Michigan Speedskating Association Hall of Fame, all in 2010. Trafeli graduated from the
University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy in 1945. He attended
Wayne State University as part of the class of 1951, where he continued skating competitively while playing quarterback for the
Wayne State Warriors football team, despite standing and weighing . He served as a dentist in the
United States Navy after earning a
D.D.S. degree from the
University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry in 1954. A resident of
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Trafeli was married to the former Marjorie Busch, whom he met while in dental school. They have six children. and has been ranked as half of the top doubles team in the Midwest for those aged 80 and over. ==References==