In its more than three decades of honoring Central New York’s sports legends, the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame has rarely presented a class as prestigious and special as its 2019 group of inductees.
Breanna Stewart, who started to build her basketball legend at Cicero-North Syracuse, and Floyd Little, who went from Syracuse University to professional football glory, heads this group that will be inducted Oct. 28 at the Hall of Fame’s annual dinner at the OnCenter.
Here is the entire Class of 2019:
Breanna Stewart is the youngest person ever chosen for the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame, not even 25, but her place in area sports lore is as firm as anyone who has ever lived in this area.
What started at Cicero-North Syracuse with back-to-back state Class AA championships continued with an unprecedented career at the University of Connecticut that included four consecutive NCAA titles, four Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors and two Naismith Awards.
Combine all that with multiple gold medals at the international level, culminating in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and a WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm in 2018, and Stewart continues to add to her legend, even as she currently recovers from a torn Achilles tendon suffered earlier this year.
Floyd Little grew up in Connecticut, but found himself at Syracuse University after befriending the late Ernie Davis, who convinced him to go to SU to wear the no. 44 at the expense of West Point and General Douglas MacArthur’s urging.
In three years at SU, Little averaged 11.6 yards per carry, leading his team to two bowl appearances with teammates that included Larry Csonka and Tom Coughlin. Twice, he finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
Little went on to a long career with the Denver Broncos, gaining more than 12,000 all-purpose yards and eventually earning a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has earned more than 30 community service awards and recently served another stint at SU as a special assistant to the athletic director.
Jason Grilli first emerged as a pitching standout at Baldwinsville in the mid-1990s, and after three years at Seton Hall was drafted fourth overall by the San Francisco Giants in 1997.
A two-decade career in the major leagues followed, Grilli pitching for nine different teams while also overcoming elbow, back and knee injuries, plus “Tommy John” surgery that nearly ended his career.
Ultimately, Grilli appeared in 595 games, saving 79 of them and winning 34, with his greatest work coming in 2013 where he helped the Pittsburgh Pirates end a two-decade playoff drought and pitched a scoreless ninth inning in the All-Star Game.
J.J. Grant made a momentous transfer from Baldwinsville to Liverpool before his sophomore year in high school. Then he starred in three sports, but made his biggest impact in track and field and football.
As a thrower, Grant broke numerous shot put records, including a 67’3″ toss at the 1985 Penn Relays and seven gold medals at the Empire State Games, and won three consecutive state titles in that event, too.
And Grant’s football prowess as a linebacker took him to Michigan, where he helped the Wolverines win back-to-back Big Ten titles and a 1989 Rose Bowl victory over USC.
Dan Hunt stands alone among scholastic wrestlers in Central New York, having won three consecutive state championships at West Genesee from 1972 to ’74 while accumulating a record of 86-0-1.
Hunt remains the only wrestler in the one-division era (which ended in the early 2000s) to claim three state titles, and all this after finishing second in the state as a freshman at 112 pounds in 1971.
What makes it all the more remarkable was that Hunt chose not to wrestle in college, instead concentrating on mechanical design and construction management, jobs that he still holds today.
Pat Killorin came from Watertown to SU in the mid-1960s and anchored the Orange’s offensive line as that team won 22 of 31 games. Starting at center, Killorin was a two-time All-American.
It was Killorin paving the way for the runs of Floyd Little and Larry Csonka, and he was primed to have a long career in the pros, too, before two knee injuries cut that career short.
Still, Killorin returned to Central New York and excelled in business, but made an even greater impact with his community service, ranging from the United Way to Hospice of CNY, Meals on Wheels, Honor Flight and the American Cancer Society.
Mike Naton did not take up golf until just before his teenage years, but more than made up for it from there, starring at Bishop Ludden and then at Western Kentucky, where he was a teammate of PGA Tour player Kenny Perry.
Once back in Central New York, Naton has won every conceivable local amateur golf title on multiple occasions, including five Syracuse District Golf Association titles that span 19 years (1982 to 2001), and has continued to win these events in the senior ranks.
And all of it is part of a great family story, with Naton’s father, Peter, a baseball catcher who made it to the Pittsburgh Pirates and his son, Matt, a standout quarterback at West Genesee and then attending St. John Fisher.
