AMERICAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION TO HONOR NEW YORK FIREFIGHTERS AT 2002 HALL OF FAME INDUCTION DINNER

AFA PRESS RELEASE: (June 05, 2002)
Media - contact Dave Burch at AFA National Office (877)624-4485 or (941)388-3510

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AMERICAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION TO HONOR NEW YORK FIREFIGHTERS AT 2002 HALL OF FAME INDUCTION DINNER

In March the AFA announced the names of those to be inducted into the AFA's Semi-Pro Football Hall of Fame* as the "Class of 2002". Among those selected for the honor was Danny Suhr, a veteran linemen of over a decade for the Brooklyn
Mariners and the New York's Bravest football teams - both member teams of the American Football Association.

Danny Suhr will be inducted posthumously as a member of the "Class of 2002" on Saturday, June 22nd in Canton, Ohio - as he was among those firemen killed in the tragic World Trade Center disaster on September 11th, 2001.

Suhr was one of the many New York firefighters that loved football so much that he played not only on the Brooklyn Mariners semi-pro team but on the New York City Fire Department's team, the NY Bravest, as well. Killed in the WTC tragedy
were 22 members of the Bravest, seven who played last season and 15 retired Bravest alumni.

According to published reports, Danny Suhr was the first firemen to die that day. Accepting Suhr's AFA Hall of Fame plaque, in Canton will be several members of the NY Bravest/Brooklyn Mariners squads as well as close family members. Sponsoring Suhr for HOF nomination was his long time coach, for both the Mariners and the NY Bravest, Robert ‘Pudgie' Walsh. Pudgie is a legendary coach of more than 4 decades of experience (46 years) in the semi-pro football circles, one of the all-time winningest coaches on our level (470 wins) and a member of the AFA's Hall of Fame - ‘class of 1987'. Walsh was the founder and head coach of the FDNY's Bravest for the organizations first 28 years and a retired NY firemen with 38 years of service.

In addition to enshrining Danny Suhr, the American Football Association will present the attending members of the New York Bravest/Brooklyn Mariners football team with a ‘Special Plaque' for their firehouse with the names of all 22 members of the firefighter team who perished in the World Trade Center disaster.

Alumni Lost: 15
Firefighter Stephen Belson - Battalion 7
Firefighter John Bergin - Rescue 5
Firefighter Peter Biefeld - Ladder 42
Firefighter Brian Bilcher - Squad 1
Firefighter Sal Calabro - Ladder 101
Firefighter Michael Cawley - Ladder 136
Firefighter Andre Fletcher - Rescue 5
Firefighter John Florio - Engine 214
Lieutenant Daniel O'Callaghan - Ladder 4
Captain Thomas Haskell Jr. - 15th Division
Lieutenant Charles "Chuck" Margiotta - Batallion 22
Firefighter Thomas Mingione - Ladder 132
Captain Timothy Stackpole - 11th Division
Firefighter Daniel Suhr - Engine 216
Lieutenant Chris Sullivan - Ladder 111

Active Players Lost : 7
Firefighter Tarel Coleman - Squad 252
Firefighter Thomas Cullen III - Squad 41
Firefighter Thomas Foley - Rescue 3
Firefighter Keith Glascoe - Ladder 21
Firefighter William Johnston - Engine 6
Firefighter Patrick Lyons - Squad 252
Firefighter Durrell " Bronko" Pearsall - Rescue 4


The following is a story written by Rick Reilly (AOL Exclusive/Sports Illustrated) that appeared on-line and is worth repeating for semi-pro football players, coaches, executives, officials and fans worldwide. It epitomizes the AFA's national slogan of "Semi-Pro and Proud". On the semi-pro (senior amateur) level it's all about the ‘love of the game' and the camaraderie of teammates for those who chose to continue playing the sport they love so much after their high school and college playing days are over.

The Real New York Giants Talk about a rebuilding year.

The New York City Fire Department football team starts its National Public Safety League season next week missing seven starters, 12 alumnus and two coaches. But the firemen are playing. Hell, yes, they're playing.

Says cornerback Mike Heffernan, whose brother John was among the Bravest who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, "Somebody said to me, ‘Probably not going to be a team this season, huh, Mike?' I told him, ‘We'll. have a team if we only have 10 guys. We're playing.'"

Most of the guys on the team have a nasty case of the WTC cough, which is what you get from digging week after week, up to 18 hours a day, and inhaling dust, smoke, glass particles, asbestos and, indeed, microscopic remains of their
fallen comrades. But the guys are playing. "Damn right," says fullback Tom
Narducci. "It's tradition."

But how? Forget about replacing the players. How do you replace the men? How does starting cornerback Danny Foley replace the starting cornerback on the other side -- his brother, Tommy?

Last season, if it wasn't Danny pulling Tommy out of the pile, it was Tommy pulling Danny ut. "That was the most fun I ever had playing football," says Danny, 28, the younger of the two by four years. "We both played high school and college, so we never got to see each other play. On this team, we were always together."

After 10 straight days of digging through the rubble, it was Danny who found Tommy. One last time, Danny pulled Tommy out of the pile. "When we found him," says Danny, "it was kind of a relief. I promised my mom I wasn't coming home
without Tommy -- and I didn't. But a lot of families had nobody to bury."

Play football? How will they even get a play off? They lost their No. 1 and 1A quarterbacks, Paddy Lyons and Tom Cullen. It was Lyons who came into the game last May against the Orange County (Calif.) Lawmen and rescued his teammates. They trailed 14-0, but he led them to a 28-21 win. He was good at that kind of thing. He was with Squad 252, along with cornerback Tarel Coleman, and his
friends believe those two rescued a lot of people that day before the steel-and-concrete sky collapsed on them.

How do you replace tight end Keith Glascoe, who was so good only a bum shoulder kept him off the New York Jets' roster in the early '90s? Or big lineman Bronko Pearsall, who insisted on singing Wild Rover after every game, win or lose?

Who's going to kick now that Billy Johnston is gone? Everybody called him Liam because he looked so bloody Irish. He was automatic on extra points, which was a luxury. Hell, there were years when the Bravest had to go for two after every touchdown just because they didn't have a kicker. Then they found Johnston.

They found Johnston again three weeks into the digging. Heffernan was there, and he helped carry his teammate out.

Even if you can replace the players who were
lost, how do you replace all the other guys who made the team so damn much fun? Tommy Haskell was the tight ends coach and wrote the team newsletter. Mike Cawley set up the after-game beer parties. Danny Suhr, the first fireman to die that day, was the treasurer. Offensive coordinator Mike Stackpole lost his brother, Tim. Linebacker Zach Fletcher lost his twin brother, Andre.

How do you go on when so many guys are dead that you can't even retire their jerseys because you wouldn't have enough left to dress the team? How do you play a game draped in sorrow like that?

Came the first team meeting, and the club didn't get anywhere near its usual 60 guys. It got 120. All the lineup holes were patched. Guys who had retired signed up again. Guys who'd been asked 10 times said yes on the 11th. You cry together
at enough funerals, you figure you can bleed together on a football field, too.
One thing about firemen, they don't let each other fight battles alone.

Talk about a comeback year. "You've got to understand," says the team's president, Neil Walsh. "We all go to each other's weddings, christenings, graduations. I broke your brother in, and your dad broke me in, and I carried your son out of the pile. We're all brothers."

Not long ago a third-grade teacher found the team's water boy -- Walsh's son Ryan -- sobbing uncontrollably in the boys' bathroom. "To him, all those guys were his uncles," says Walsh. "He couldn't handle losing them all in one day."

Some holes are easier to patch than others.

For more information about the New York's Bravest see www.bravestfootballclub.com

* Not affiliated with the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio


AFA League Membership:
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the leagues that have joined to date (to view click AFA Member Teams). We would also like to thank the Midwest Football League, Mid Continental Football League, Golden State Amateur Football League and Mason Dixon Football League for posting the AFA's logo on their websites; as a result these organizations will receive award packages from our sponsors.

If you haven't already done so, make sure to post the AFA's logo on your website and include it in your game program with our website address (www.americanfootballassn.com). Show your players and fans that you are networking your organization with the AFA for information, scores, ratings, etc



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