Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame President Anthony Santo announced that the Selection Committee has named six inductees to the Class of 2023.
Those selections include Saidu Ezike, Stephan Khinoy, L&M Tavern Touch Football Team, Margaret Nabel, Jeff Stoutland and Andrew Wisniewski.
In making the announcement, the Hall’s president said, “After a process of diligent research, discussion, debate and voting, the Committee has elected five individuals and one team to the Hall. All are extremely worthy of the honor and I congratulate them on their designation.”
The president added, “The process of selecting inductees is one that is exhaustive and taken extremely seriously by each member of the selection committee. Staten Island is a well spring of a rich sports history and achievement and given the Hall’s high bar, of an 80% vote for Induction, the road to the Hall is a purposefully difficult one to travel that sees truly deserving individuals and teams reach its end.”
The Hall’s Induction Ceremony Chairman, Robert Scamardella, noted, “While a date for the ceremony has not yet been decided, it will take place in the Fall and we except to announce the date and time in the near future.’’
The new inductees are a part of the 28th class. Since the first class was announced in 1995, the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame has inducted a combined 184 individuals and teams.
For a look at the Class of 2023 and some of their impressive accomplishments, please scroll down:
Saidu Ezike
Ezike, a two-time High School All-American and three-time All-Ivy hurdler, left a trail of broken records at Port Richmond High School and after that at Cornell University.
The 2005 PSAL city champion, New York State Federation champion, Eastern States champion, and U.S. Scholastic Nationals champion set Staten Island records in the 55 and 110-meter hurdles; and the story was the same at Cornell, where Ezike was a four-time indoor and outdoor Heptagonal champion and meet record-holder, a second-team All American and set Ivy League records at 60 and 110 meters.
Stephan Khinoy
Khinoy was a top fencer – New England epee champion, fourth at Nationals, and seventh in the NCAA as a Harvard undergrad; and, 40 years later, as an over-60 national finalist at the USA Fencing championships. But he’ll be remembered for introducing the sport to generations of athletes on Staten Island and beyond.
The founder and longtime president of the Staten Island Fencing Club, and head coach of the Staten Island Fencing Center, Khinoy started programs at the College of Staten Island, Staten Island Tech, St. Joseph by-the-Sea and a dozen more. He was on the board of USA Fencing, co-chairman of the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame and a publisher of books by and for fencers.
L&M Tavern
L&M Tavern won 46 consecutive games and four straight regular-season and playoff championships in the Staten Island Touch Tackle League, which was a sporting and cultural phenomenon on Staten Island for most of the second half of the 20th Century and a chunk of the 21st. The SITTL often attracted dozens of the Island’s best athletes and thousands of fans to weekly games at Walker Park, the Berry Houses and high school stadiums.
There were other great teams, but none as constant as the boys from L&M, which dominated the league’s top division every year, with the same roster, the same coaches, the same sponsor, and a team-first culture that thrives to this day.
Margaret Nabel
Competitive opportunities for women athletes were few and far between in the summer of 1914, when teenager Margaret Nabel joined the New York Bloomer Girls, an all-women’s baseball team, after pitching against them in an exhibition game with the Siscos, a Staten Island semi-pro team.
By 1920, the same year women won the right to vote, she became the team’s owner and manager. And with Nabel also acting as general manager, booking agent, and a one-woman public relations department, the Bloomer Girls barnstormed from Florida to Nova Scotia and as far west as Texas, playing men’s, women’s and mixed teams; and for almost two decades, billing themselves as “Female World Champions,” they remained undefeated against all-women’s teams.
Jeff Stoutland
Stoutland, the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive line coach and run game coordinator, didn’t just become a coaching star when the Eagles beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
A 1979 Advance All-Star at Port Richmond High School and three-year starting linebacker at Southern Connecticut State, Stoutland began a 29-year college coaching odyssey at his alma mater, with stops at Cornell; Michigan State; Miami, where he took the Canes to a bowl game as interim head coach; and Alabama, where he was an integral part of back-to-back national championship campaigns. His 2012 offensive line was judged among the best of all time.
Andrew Wisniewski
Even as an under-sized guard at St. Peter’s High School, Andrew Wisniewski had a head for the game, a motor that never stopped, and a chip on his shoulder that helped make him the 1999 Jaques Award winner as the best high school basketball player on Staten Island, a college star, and a stalwart of the European professional leagues.
