Notable Athletes with Roots to the Legendary Taylor Street
Excerpted from the Taylor Street Archives website. www.taylorstreetachives.com

It is altogether fitting and proper to begin our list of notable athletes with Nick Fosco, who, as a 147-pound welterweight, won the first National Golden Gloves Tournament sponsored by the Chicago Tribune in 1928. Nick Fosco’s picture currently adorns a wall in the Hull House Museum (HHM) and the HHM website as one of the many residents of the Little Italy portion of the Near West Side immigrant community who participated in the Jane Addams Hull House experiment. Richard Guerrero, born two years later, in 1930, was the most heralded Golden Gloves Champion of all time. He captured the 1948, 1949, and 1951 Golden Gloves Titles. Richie’s phenomenal amateur career included a 332-2 won/lost record, in which he defeated every one of his opponents. 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 one of many successful amateur boxers from Taylor Street. Jackie won the 118 lb. Golden Gloves championship in 1949 and went on to win international fame as well.

Fast forward another three decades, during Mohammed Ali’s reign, and another Taylor Street bred 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 which propelled Rossman on to a title fight for the cruiserweight championship of the world. Luke’s youthful career as an athlete growing up in Taylor Street’s Little Italy is documented in two stories he submitted to the Taylor Street Archives (TSA). My Gemma, a classic of sorts, memorializes those neighborhood coaches who had an influence on who and what we became. The “Our Athletes” page of the TSA welcomes the names and stories of notable neighborhood boxers such as John “Chickie” LaPlaca, Tony Spano and Primo LaCasa.

Despite the numerous fist fighter who won more than their share of laurels, the most popular sport in our neighborhood was softball. At the top of the Windy City Softball icons who achieved fame during the pre-WWII era are Charlie Serpe (outfielder) and Anthony “NoBoy” Tenerelli (short center fielder). Bobby Garippo (3rd baseman) was the most notable of the Windy City icons. Bobby had a stellar career as an MVP who played on five Windy City Softball World Championship teams during the decades of the 70s and 80s. His achievements won him a place in the Windy City Softball Hall of Fame in 1987. Other great softball players that came out of the neighborhood could be found at the likes of Cinder Stadium, which was dominated by the eleven (11) Orrico brothers, and Dante schoolyard, which was dominated by the Parise brothers. Included among those players were Nick Parise, Cy Abatta, Leewa Yucilla, and Richie “Schemer” Mangarisi. (Aside: Anthony Tenerelli acquired his nickname “NoBoy” when, as a youngster, he was asked 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.)

Basketball has the longest list of neighborhood athletes. Harry Garippo, whose talents ranged from shooting pool and handicapping horse races to basketball and baseball, heads 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 Chicago inter-league city championship in 1951. On the subject of city championships, Vince Romano, named to the all-star team in the city-wide Settlement House Basketball Tournament, coached the 1960-61 Wells High School basketball team to the Chicago Public Schools Championship…the Chicgo Public Schools was the largest school boy conference in America. Also, Taylor Street bred were the twin icons of the “fabulous” Billy Russo and the “incomparable” Johnny Incardone of St. Phillips High School fame. Johnny was the perennial high scorer in the St. Sabina annual basketball tournament consisting of college and “almost made it” professional basketball players. Nick Caruso and Vince Romano, both of whom coached Bobby Garippo as a grammar school basketball player, concurred that Bobby, Harry Garippos’s son, was the best basketball player and 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 3 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.”