Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame

Relive It All Again

Football

Shakespear_Bill

Bill Shakespeare

Bill Shakespeare was an All-American triple-threat tailback at Notre Dame, where he led the Irish in passing, rushing, and scoring, and set school punting records that still stand. Shakespeare threw the winning touchdown pass in Notre Dame’s 1935 comeback victory over Ohio State, later voted The Greatest Game Ever Played. He is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.(Read more...)

Mike Siani

Mike Siani, a record-setting receiver at New Dorp High School and Villanova, scored 17 touchdowns and caught 158 passes in nine seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts of the National Football League. Perhaps Staten Island’s greatest all-around athlete, Siani was a High School All-American in football, led the Island in scoring in basketball, and was drafted as a shortstop out of high school and college.(Read more...)

Headshot of Sal Somma

Sal Somma

Sal Somma, a onetime high school dropout and teenage runaway, kicked the extra point that gave NYU a 7-6 upset over Vince Lombardi and Fordham’s legendary “Seven Blocks of Granite,” denying the previously undefeated Rams a trip to the 1937 Rose Bowl. In a coaching career that spanned parts of five decades at Curtis High School, Mt. St. Joseph Academy in Vermont, and New Dorp High School, Somma’s teams won eight New York City championships (Read more...)

Strong_Ken

Ken Strong

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 (Read more...)

Sullivan_Mickey

Mickey Sullivan

Mickey Sullivan, an all-city end at Curtis High School and MVP at North Carolina State, transformed the Wagner College football program in a meteoric stint as head coach. Sullivan, already a successful businessman, inherited a team that hadn’t won a game in two years, and in his fourth season guided the Seahawks to a 9-0 record in 1960, the first undefeated team in school history. Then he convinced the school to hire a fulltime coach, (Read more...)