Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame
Relive It All Again
Frank McConville, a track and cross-country star at Monsignor Farrell High School and All-American distance star at Georgetown, is best known for his hometown road-racing exploits.
McConville won the Staten Island road-racing Triple Crown in 1986, 1987 and 1988, and was named Big Apple Runner of the Year in 1988. A quarter-century after his prime, he still held Island records at two miles, three miles, 5,000 meters, the half-marathon and marathon.
Nick Kvasic was the first soccer captain at Port Richmond High School and a three-year starting midfielder at Wagner College; but his greatest contributions were as a coach, referee, and ambassador for the game.
Kvasic won six PSAL city championships and two Metro Bowl titles in 34 seasons as the girls’ coach at New Dorp High School – where his teams compiled win streaks of 49 and 35 games – and started or revived programs at three Island high schools and the College of Staten Island.
Vic Esposito, the 1959 New York City Player of the Year and a Scholastic Coach High School All-American two-way tackle, starred on three city championship teams at New Dorp High School.
A three-year starter at North Carolina, Esposito helped lead the Tar Heels to an Atlantic Coast Conference championship and a Gator Bowl victory, before playing in the Canadian Football League and Continental Football League.
Bill Cali had two baseball lives – the first as a heady infielder at New Dorp High School, in the New York Giant organization, and on the Island sandlots; and the second as the College of Staten Island’s winningest coach – bracketing his years as a New York City fire captain.
Cali won 268 games in 14 seasons at CSI, guiding the Dolphins to eight CUNY tournament titles, nine regular-season titles, and the 2001 ECAC Metro Tournament championship.
Bill Murtha, Staten Island’s second 1,000-point scorer and the first to score 50 points against an Island rival, led St. Peter’s High School to a 28-win season. He was MVP of the Iona College Tournament in a losing cause, and the 1961 Jaques Award winner as the Island’s top player.
The star of an undefeated frosh team at Loyola-Chicago, the 1963 NCAA champion, Murtha transferred to George Washington, where he averaged 15 points a game in his only varsity season, before a car accident ended his basketball career.