A small Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame class that's big on grit Sunday, December 25, 2011, 10:05 AM
By
Cormac Gordon
The Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame has inducted 107 individuals in its 16-year existence. The initial inductees who stepped onto the stage at College of Staten Island's Williamson Theatre in January of 1995 comprised an all-star, no-brainer list of 11, headlined by names like Bobby Thomson and Hank Majeski, Rich Kotite and Jim Albus. And, amazingly enough, there has been nary a noticeable drop in quality Staten Island Advance file photo Susan Wagner HS product Frank Menechino played three infield positions during his career with Oakland and Toronto.
candidates in the years since. The names that now hang on the walls of the Hall of Fame room at the CYO-MIV
Center at Mount Loretto include 16 major leaguers and 11 NFL players. There are Olympians, and college football All-Americas, boxing trainers and tennis stars. And legendary local coaching names like Somma, McGinley, Tierney, Paturzo and Levinson are sprinkled into the glittery mix. A walk amidst the photos and memorabilia of The Hall is an Island history class dating all the way back to the mid-19th century when Mary Outerbridge was playing the game of tennis in St. George, a sport she helped import from the British colony of Bermuda. At virtually the same time, future three-time 20-game winner Brewery Jack Taylor was learning the roughhouse game of baseball a couple of miles down Richmond Terrace.
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