Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame
Relive It All Again
Cathy Andruzzi was in the vanguard of women’s basketball from the time she played for Queens College in the 1973 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national championship game.
Andruzzi served as general manager of the Philadelphia Rage of the American Basketball League; executive director of the 2000 Final Four; and head coach at Wagner College, Fordham and East Carolina – where her teams made three post-season appearances.
The Monsignor Farrell relay team of John Daly, Ken Panebianco, Joe Reina and Chris Ryan won the 1973 Championship of America two-mile relay at the Penn Relays in Philadelpia before a crowd of 40,000 spectators.
Coach George Kochman’s foursome already owned the Staten Island record, before winning Staten Island’s first and only team title at America’s most prestigious high school meet.
Vernon Turner played five seasons as a National Football League wide receiver, running back and kick returner with the Bills, Rams, Lions and Buccaneers, twice finishing among the league leaders in punt and kick returns. Turner, a record-setting quarterback at Curtis High School, starred on three NAIA national championship teams at Carson-Newman College, where he ran for three scores and was named MVP in the 1988 title game.
Claude Schoenlank won 41 Staten Island tennis championships – singles, doubles, and mixed doubles – and four triple crowns.
Before he was out of his teens, Schoenlank had already won three New York City private school titles – the first as an eighth-grader – two PSAL city championships, two New York City Open titles, and his first Island crown, a sign of the dominance to come.
Tom Roche played in two Rose Bowls, the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl as an Ohio State defensive back, led the Big Ten in interceptions, and helped the Buckeyes win or share the conference championship four years in a row. As a high school tailback at Monsignor Farrell – where his teams lost three games in as many years – Roche led Staten Island in rushing and scoring, before moving to the other side of the ball in Columbus.