17 Italian Greats in Sports and Italian Insights

Al Bruno is a teacher and writer and has been reporting on sports events and personalities since his college reporting days at Canisius College in the late 1970s. His passion and insights in sports is fueled by his experiences as a published sportswriter, high school coach, and football player.

17 Italian Greats in Sports and Italian Insights (2023) by Al Bruno is an Italian sports and culture publication, an anthology, presenting 58 of his best Italian sports stories and Italian cultural insights about early Italian immigration issues, great first-generation, Italian Americans, images, traditions (St. Anthony’s Day Festival in Buffalo and winemaking), and lessons (good and painful), and the unexpected succumbing of Buffalo’s Italian icon and ambassador, Joey Giambra, to covid-19.

Al Bruno’s insights reveal Italian events and cultural experiences he lived and observed along the way as a first-generation, Italian American and the only child of Italian immigrants (from Pratola Peligna from the Abruzzi region of Italy), perilously arriving at Ellis Island, alone and startled; they survived, making Buffalo, New York, their permanent home for the past 64 years.

Importantly, it primarily focuses on the inspiring insights and successes of 17 Italian sporting greats by traveling through a time tunnel, remembering and honoring Italian sports heroes from the 1940s to the present day.

What makes them special, great, and worthy of their accomplishments? They were Italians that paid the price for American success beyond their most hopeful dreams: They became the Italian sporting greats and headliners, and they earned it by capitalizing on opportunity with hard work and determination. In fact, Italian sporting greats often achieved the unimaginable, beating the steep odds against them and becoming American champions, mostly beloved by all.

They won, fairly and squarely, to the crowd’s delight and enthusiasm: Winning necessarily defines the Italian sporting greats, and they stand out, in front of the rest, the best, and are included in many American city annals for honor and posterity; some deservingly arrive for induction into the football, basketball, baseball, boxing, wrestling, and auto racing sports halls of fame in America.