A Pennsylvanian who moved to Cleveland to play for the American Hungarian team, George Caraffi and his brother Ralph were the city’s best soccer players of the 1920’s. Originally a defender/midfielder, he gained his greatest fame as a center forward. He twice scored seven goals in a game, but his biggest goal came on June 23, 1929; the winning goal against Hakoah of New York, the U.S. National Champions. In the Western finals of the 1928 National Challenge Cup, he scored two overtime goals in a 4-1 victory and the clinching goal in a 2-1 win in early rounds, and the goal which gave his team a short 3-2 lead in overtime of the finals.
Danny Weiler won his 3,000th career victory at the age of 46 in 1983, enroute to becoming one of just 36 riders in thoroughbred racing history to have ridden over 3,500 winners. A large percentage of those victories came at Cleveland’s Thistledown Race Track where he won over a dozen Thistledown meet titles, beginning in 1960. He got a strong leg up on those many triumphs on August 12, 1961 by winning six races in one day, a feat accomplished just nine times in the track’s long history. He was also a four-time winner of Thistledown’s long-prestigious darling Nellie Gray Handicap.
From August 1972 through October 1990, Frederick Baker drove in 184 races, winning 88, placing second in 30 and third in 18. During his memorable career he qualified for the pole position 69 times and established 25 lap records. In 1980 he earned acclaim as the worldwide Jaguar Driver of the Year and also earned C Production National Champion laurels. He placed seventh in the 1989 international Porsche Turbo Cup Invitational held in Kylami, South Africa. Closer to home, he three times won the famed Nelson Ledges 24-Hour Endurance Race.
A graduate of Shaker Heights High, Steve Trevor went on to become a three-time NCAA Fencing All-American at Columbia University. He earned berths on the 1984 and 1988 U.S, Olympic teams, placing 17th overall in the 1988 epee competition. Earlier he won berths on the 1981 and 1983 U.S. World Junior Team, placing 8th in world epee competition in 1983 and was also the 1983 U.S. National Junior Olympic Champion in both foil and epee.
William Reith learned to fence quickly and well at Fenn College in the mid-60’s, winning the All-Ohio epee title and finishing fourth in the Midwest Championships as a junior and going 41-7 as a senior. He continued in Open competition after graduation and competed on U.S. World Championship teams in 1974, 1975 and 1977 and as a member of the 1975 gold medal winning USA Pan-American Games epee team. He won the title of U.S. Fencing Masters national Senior Olympics Epee Champion. A successful coach, he developed fellow Hall of Fame inductees Steve Trevor and Jon Normile and now coaches the Cleveland State men’s and women’s fencing teams.
One of Greater Cleveland’s most accomplished fencing products, Jon Normile competed in epee for the U.S. Olympic Team in 1992 in Barcelona and was an alternate on the 1988 and 1996 teams. He was U.S. National Epee Champion in 1988 and 1991, National Junior Olympic Epee Champion in 1987 and at Columbus University in 1988. In addition, he won the silver medal in the 1991 Pan- American Games and was the 1996 silver medalist in the U.S. National Fencing Championships. A native of Berea, he is a graduate of Berea High School.
One of the most prolific scorers in Cleveland high school basketball annals, Phil Argento astounded fans with a 66-point outburst against Cleveland South in 1964. He played for Cleveland West High from 1962 through 1965, twice winning all-scholastic honors. Phil went on to play at the University of Kentucky for fabled coach Adolph Rupp from 1967-1969. He became a starter as a sophomore and captained the Wildcats as a senior. Drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, he played instead in the National Amateur Basketball League for five seasons and later became a high school coach.
John Kuhel was born in Cleveland and developed his skills on the city’s sandlots. He played professional baseball for the Kansas City Blues at the age of 19, helping them to the Little World Series title in 1929. He was sold to the Washington Senators for the then-huge sum of $50,000 in 1930 and in 18 seasons with the Senators and the Chicago White Sox he hit .277 and was tabbed one of baseball’s all-time best fielding first basemen. His finest season came as a member of Washington’s 1933 American League champions, when he hit .322 and drove in 107 runs. He went on to manage the Senators in 1948 and 1949, then managed the Blues for two years before entering private business.
Armand D’Anna starred in Greater Cleveland’s strong Class A amateur baseball program over parts of three decades, pitching in 17 national tournaments and starting for famed Rosenblums in the first amateur night game at Cleveland Stadium. He began his amateur career in 1936 fresh out of Shaw High, pitching for the Class A champion Fisher Foods team. After playing pro baseball for two years, he returned to pitch for Fisher Foods, Factory Furniture and Rosenblums from 1940 to 1952 with a four year time out for World War II service. He also coached Rosenblums for three years and was a head coach for 27 years in the Euclid Boy’s League.
A quiet, dignified gentleman who came to the Cleveland Indians in a 1976 trade with Montreal for pitcher Jackie Brown, Andre “Thunder” Thornton played for ten memorable seasons with the Tribe. During that time, the slugging first basemen/designated hitter connected for 214 home runs, just 12 short of Earl Averill’s record. A knee operation which forced him to miss the entire 1980 season undoubtedly cost him the mark. When he retired, he ranked eighth on the Indians career rbi list and tenth in total bases and slugging percentage. His single season total of 109 bases on balls was the second highest in club history at the time. Those figures helped earn him selections to the American League All-Star Team in 1982 and 1984. He was selected the Indians Man of the Year in 1978 and shared the honor in 1982 with teammate Toby Harrah. He has made Cleveland his home since his retirement in 1986.