Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame
Relive It All Again
Leon Brown, a body-building legend from coast to coast for three decades, won titles from Mr. Venice Beach, Mr. California and Mr. Western America to Mr. New York City, Mr. East Coast, and Mr. Midwest.
A champion at the Gold’s Classic and U.S. National Gold Cup, Brown was still in top form when he won the 1988 USA Masters and 1989 Masters Nationals. He is a member of the World Bodybuilding Guild Hall of Fame.
Aileen Aponte, who led Curtis High School to four straight city championships in softball and won an individual city championship in gymnastics, is the only athlete to win the Pegasus Award, which goes to the top public-school senior athlete in New York City, in two sports.
Aponte was 18-0 as a pitcher in the playoffs at Curtis, before playing on a Princeton softball team that won three Ivy League titles, earned two NCAA Tournament berths, and went to the 1995 College World Series.
Ken Strong, a 1928 All-American tailback at New York University, was an All Pro for the Stapleton Football Club, Staten Island’s franchise in the National Football League from 1929 until 1932.
Strong, a four-time All-Pro in 14 seasons with the Stapes and Giants, retired as the Giants’ all-time leading scorer. He’s the only athlete to be inducted into the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Tony Petosa, the heart and soul of the College of Staten Island basketball program as player, assistant coach and head coach, guided the Dolphins to five CUNY championships, six NCAA Division III Tournaments and more than 400 wins in a quarter-century as head coach.
Petosa, a three-time CUNY champion and conference tournament MVP as a player, set a school scoring record that stood for 16 seasons. His all-time rebounding record still stands.
Lance Olssen was an All-City lineman at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, and All-Big Ten defensive tackle at Purdue, and played two seasons for the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers, and two more for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League.
Olssen started 28 straight games on Purdue teams that went 24-6-1, won a Big Ten championship and shared another, and beat Southern Cal 14-13 in the 1967 Rose Bowl; and was a 1967 Academic All-American.