Joe Puleo attended Michigan State University but later represented the York Barbell Club. Puleo was AAU champion in 1962 and 1964 as a middleweight, and then won light-heavyweight titles in 1966-68. He also won gold medals at the 1963 and 1967 Pan American Games, as a middleweight in 1963 and a light-heavy in 1967. Puleo retired in 1970 to start a career as an attorney, but he returned in the late 1970s to try to make the 1980 Olympic team, but was denied any chance at that by the America boycott.