Fra Noi: Taylor-made Athletes
February 2014 issue
Vincent Romano
The founder of the Taylor Street Archives plumbs the depths of his beloved neighborhood’s athletic prowess.

The Taylor Street Archives honors those intrepid Italian immigrants who settled in Taylor Street’s Little Italy on the Near West Side of Chicago at the turn of the century, as well as their offspring who were born and raised there. As we note in our archives (www. taylorstreetarchives.com), they were a people who excelled in every field — from manual labor to endeavors that only the most talented and courageous could master. It should come as no surprise, then, that our annals are filled with the accomplishments of the Taylor Street denizens and scions who left their mark in the talent-driven arena of athletics.

It is altogether fitting and proper to begin our list of notable athletes with Nick Fosco, who won the welterweight crown, in the first National Golden Gloves Tournament sponsored by the Chicago Tribune in 1928. Richard Guerrero, born two years later in 1930, was the most heralded Golden Gloves Champion of all time, capturing the 1948, 1949 and 1951 national titles. Richie’s phenomenal amateur career included a 332-2 won/lost record. Of special note was his defeat of middleweight Floyd Patterson, who later went on to win the heavyweight championship of the world. Jackie Corvino, son of a blacksmith from Morgan Street, was yet another successful amateur boxer from Taylor Street, winning the 118 lb. Golden Gloves championship in 1949.

Fast-forward three decades to the reign of Mohammed Ali, when another Taylor Street athlete, Luke Capuano, etched his name in the boxing chronicles as a cruiser heavyweight. Luke was involved in a hotly contested split-decision loss to Mike Rossman that propelled the latter to a title fight for the world championship. Luke’s youthful athletic career is documented in two stories he submitted to the Taylor Street Archives. The “Our Athletes” page of the TSA also bears the names and stories of notable neighborhood boxers such as John “Chickie” LaPlaca, Tony Spano and Primo LaCasa.

Despite the many fist-fighters who won their share of laurels, the most popular sport in our neighborhood was softball. At the top of the Windy City softball hill during the pre-WWII era were outfielder Charlie Serpe and short center fielder Anthony “Noboy” Tenerelli. (Anthony acquired the nickname “Noboy” when he was asked as a youngster by a horse player to pick the jockey who he thought would be riding the winning horse. He picked “Noboy,” which means there was no jockey yet assigned to that horse.)

Third baseman Bobby Garippo had a stellar career as an MVP who played on five Windy City Softball World Championship teams during the 1970s and 1980s. His achievements won him a place in the Windy City Softball Hall of Fame in 1987. Garippo and other softball standouts played at the likes of Cinder Stadium, which was ruled by the eleven Orrico brothers, and Dante schoolyard, which was dominated by the Parise brothers. Other aces included Nick Parise, Cy Abatta, Leewa Yucilla and Richie “Schemer” Mangarisi.
Basketball produced the longest list of stellar neighborhood athletes. Harry Garippo, whose talents also included baseball, shooting pool and handicapping horse races, topped the list as a leading scorer for Medill High School during the 1920s. Nick Caruso captained St. Ignatius High School to a share of the inter-league city championship in 1951. My all-star credentials pale to my having coached the 1960-61 Wells High School basketball team to the Chicago Public Schools Championship, the largest schoolboy conference in America. Then there were the fabulous Billy Russo and the incomparable Johnny Incardone of St. Phillips High School. Johnny was the perennial high scorer in an annual basketball tournament at St. Sabina’s that featured college players and “almost made it” professionals.

Nick Caruso and I coached Harry Garippo’s son, Bobby Garippo, as a grammar school basketball player. Both of us agree that he was the best basketball player and likely the best all-around athlete to ever come out of Taylor Street. There was no one like Bobby Garippo:--“an 8th grader popping jump shots that rivaled those of Kobey Bryant’s 3 pointers, long before the three-point rule came into effect. It wasn’t until Michael Jordan came along that I saw the equivalent of a young Bobby Garippo’s driving lay-ups.” TSA eulogy. (In addition to his basketball and softball skills, Bobby Garippo was noted in his later years for the numerous golf championships he won while representing the Ridgemoor Country Club.)