Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame

Relive It All Again

Football

Paturzo_Al

Al Paturzo

Al Paturzo, a two-time New York State Coach of the Year at Susan Wagner High School, is Staten Island’s winningest high school football coach of all time. Paturzo’s Falcon teams won six New York City PSAL championships – three in a row in 1988, 1989 and 1990 – 14 Staten Island public school titles, and a record 37 straight games.(Read more...)

Pullara_Pete

Pete Pullara

Pete Pullara was an All-City two-way lineman at New Dorp High School, an outstanding offensive guard at Tennessee-Chattanooga, and a fourth-round pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 1978 NFL draft. Decades after injuries short-circuited Pullara’s pro football career, he found a second career as director of stadium operations for the Staten Island Yankees, then as the longtime stadium superintendent at both the old and the new Yankee Stadium. He was named to the Staten (Read more...)

John Quinn

John Quinn, a High School All-American tackle at Monsignor Farrell High School and a team captain at Penn State, went six seasons – four at Farrell and the next two in Happy Valley – without losing a game. Quinn anchored a Farrell defense that won 33 straight games and limited opponents to a single touchdown one year, before playing in three bowl games at Penn State, where he was the team’s second-leading tackler.(Read more...)

Ragucci_Fred

Fred Ragucci

Fred Ragucci, a two-time all-city defensive end at Monsignor Farrell High School, went on to Penn State, where he had two sacks, three solo tackles and a fumble recovery in his first game against Miami, and played in four bowl games. In his five seasons as a starter in high school and college, Ragucci’s teams lost a total of six games, and he was the first football winner of Penn State’s Superior Scholar-Athlete Award.(Read more...)

Roche_Tom

Tom Roche

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 (Read more...)