Andy Barberi

Andy Barberi, a High School All-American lineman at Curtis High School and team captain at New York University, played all 60 minutes in NYU’s 1936 upset of Vince Lombardi and Fordham’s previously undefeated “Seven Blocks of Granite.”

Barberi returned to Staten Island to coach football for 29 years at his alma mater, where the football field bears his name.

Football

Class of 1996

From Our Collection

Ben Sarullo (#1) with New Drop coach Sal Somma and Curtis coach Andy Barberi and his captain pose with referees before the Curtis-New Dorp Thanksgiving Day

Before they were opposing coaches in Staten Island’s greatest traditional football rivalry, the Curtis-New Dorp game on Thanksgiving Day, Sal Somma (third from left) and Andy Barberi (third from right) were teammates at Curtis and again at New York University, where they were among the stars of a 1936 upset of a legendary Fordham team.

Every Thanksgiving for 30 years, despite being the principal figures on opposite sides of a storied rivalry that drew crowds of 10,000 and more, the two coaches met for breakfast before the game.