Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame

Relive It All Again

Anthony Varvaro

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Anthony Varvaro pitched in 166 big-league games, helped push the Atlanta Braves to an N.L. East title in 2013, and averaged a strikeout-per-inning in 11 major and minor-league seasons with the Mariners, Braves, and Red Sox.

He was a headliner from the start at Curtis High School, pitching a no-hit, 15-strikeout game in the 2001 city playoffs; and at St. John’s, where he was a third-team All-American and two-time All-Big East pitcher, and remains among the all-time leaders in wins and strikeouts.

 

Baseball
Class of 2019

Did You Know?

Anthony Varvaro, who found a second career as a Port Authority police officer, married the former Kerry Thomson, great-niece of Hall of Famer Bobby Thomson, who hit the most celebrated home run in baseball history, lifting the Brooklyn Dodgers over the New York Giants in their 1951 National League playoff.

Nicky Anosike

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Nicky Anosike, a two-time Jaques Award winner as the best high school basketball player on Staten Island and the 2004 New York State Player of the Year, played in three Final Fours and won back-to-back national championships at Tennessee. A gold medalist in the 2007 Pan Am Games, she was the 2008 NCAA Woman of the Year.

In five Women’s National Basketball Association seasons with the Minnesota Lynx, Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks, Anosike made the All-Rookie and All-Defensive Teams, and was a 2009 All Star.

Basketball
Class of 2008

Steve Zuntag

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Zuntag_Steve

Steve Zuntag, a two-time Staten Island Amateur champion and four-time Senior Amateur titlist, served for 40 years as president of the Staten Island Golf Association.

Known to Island golfers as “the Pope,” Zuntag ensured the health of the Amateur, expanded the tournament calendar for men, women, seniors and junior golfers, helped found and expand the New York City Amateur, and negotiated the tee-time reservation system for local clubs on public courses.

Golf
Class of 2018

Bob Steele

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Steele_Bob

Bob Steele was a mentor and role model to generations of athletes in more than a half-century as a coach and athletic director at McKee High School and Staten Island Tech, and as an assistant at the College of Staten Island.

A three-time Daily News Coach of the Year, Steele won three Staten Island High School League titles in 15 seasons as the basketball coach at McKee, and an Island PSAL title in 41 seasons as a baseball coach with limited resources, teaching values he learned on the same courts and ballfields.

Baseball, Basketball
Class of 2018

Staten Island Little League Founders

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Little League baseball was barely a rumor on Staten Island in the 1950s, until a group of determined men built something they called the Staten Island Little League.

After beginning play on borrowed land in 1953, the league’s founding fathers – Bud Cusack, Jiggs Seaman, John Marino, Joe Darcy Sr., Joe “Babe” Darcy Jr., Jim Darcy and Ed Elliott – carved a complex out of the Dongan Hills wetlands, and became the model for all the leagues and players that followed.

Contributor
Class of 2018