Mike Modano

Hockey

The all-time highest scoring American-born player in the National Hockey League & 2014 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductee, Mike Modano was a smooth skating forward who spent 17 seasons in hockey’s premier league. Modano began skating at the age of seven with hockey following shortly after. He excelled in the sport immediately. With his families support behind him, they relocated twice to provide better opportunities for the young star.

In the 1984-85 season, while playing in the Midget Majors, Modano scored 50 goals and 50 assists on the way to winning the USA Hockey National Championship. At 16, he joined the junior Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League. After a final season of junior in 1988-89, Modano made his NHL debut during the 1989-90 season. That year, he was chosen for the NHL All-Rookie Team and was runner-up to Sergei Makarov for the Calder Trophy as the top first-year player in the NHL.

The North Stars left Minnesota for Dallas and were re-branded as the Stars prior to the 1993-94 season, with Modano helping to sell NHL hockey in Texas. The Stars finished first in the Central Division in 1996-97, reached the Conference final in 1998 and won the Stanley Cup in 1999. Modano led the Stars in scoring through the post-season with 23 points, despite playing with a broken wrist suffered in Game Two of the final against the Buffalo Sabres.

While regarded as an offensive-minded forward through most of his career, Modano, modified his game and in 2001, was a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the top defensive forward. In many ways, Modano was the face of the North Stars/Stars franchise. He had 16 seasons scoring 20 or more goals, including 9 with 30 or more, plus a superb 50-goal season in 1993-94. Twice, including that 1993-94 season, he recorded 93 points. Overall he was selected to and played for 8 NHL All Star Teams. In 2011, after 21 seasons in the NHL, Modano retired as a Dallas Star. The franchise retired his number 9 in 2014.

Modano holds NHL records for most regular season goals, most regular season points and most playoff points by an American-born player. He represented the United States at the Winter Olympics in 1998, 2002 (taking home a silver medal) and 2006.

Modano serves as the Executive Advisor and Alternate Governor for the Dallas Stars, a position he has held since 2013.

Tom Pistone

Legendary NASCAR Perennial Contender & Winner

Beginning his racing career in the late 1940’s at Soldiers Field, which is now home to the NFL team, the Chicago Bears, Tom “Tiger” Pistone, a perennial point chaser, was always a top contender for the title at the fabled track.

Competing against local legends, “Tiger” drove his no. 3 Pontiac to the track championships at Soldiers Field in the 1950’s.   During that time, winning the track title at Soldiers Field was quite a feat. Pistone captured the crown an amazing five consecutive times, a record at Soldiers Field that still stands today.

Pistone’s first victory in a NASCAR sanctioned race came on June 30, 1956, just one year after entering into the NASCAR world. An enormous crowd of 38,000 screaming fans watched him drive his ’56 Chevy ragtop to victory in a 100 mile convertible contest at Soldiers Field. 1959 marked Pistone’s first full season on NASCAR’s Grand National (now Sprint Cup) tour and it remains one of the most outstanding records ever compiled by a driver during his freshman year in major league stock car racing.  Driving a Ford Thunderbird, the little dynamo scored two victories and logged a dozen top five finishes on his way to a sixth place finish in the point standings.

In 1960, he wore a life preserver and an oxygen tube in his car while racing at Daytona. He did this for fear of running into the lake in the speedway, something that actually happened to driver Tommy Irwin in the first qualifying race. His 130th and final NASCAR race came in 1968. In 11 years of competing in the NASCAR Grand National Division as a driver, Pistone recorded 130 starts, 5 poles, 2 wins, 29 top-5s, and 53 top-10s.

Pistone’s ability as a driver is equaled only by his expertise in the field of designing and building race cars. In 1987 Pistone took time off from his race car building and parts business long enough to compete in a race for retired drivers, held at Hickory Motor Speedway. Showing the same skill and determination he exhibited at Soldiers Field in the 1950’s Pistone found himself in a very familiar place once again…victory lane.

Pistone credits his driving force to succeed to the love of his life and late wife Crystal Pauline Pistone, who he shares eight children with. With a passion for animal rights he is active with his children, Tommy III and Crystal in the Fredo Helping PAWS in Need Animal Rescue, Inc.

Nat C. Rosasco

Golf

Nat C. Rosasco, a lifelong Chicagoland resident was involved in the golf industry for over 75 years. Rosasco was the owner of the Chicago-based Northwestern Golf Co., once the largest golf club manufacturer in the world, which was founded by his father in 1929.

Sharing in his father’s philosophy of making a quality product at a reasonable price, the company manufactured every part of a golf club, which kept costs low and made a basic golf starter set for consumers who could not afford a full set of clubs. Rosasco succeeded in his goal of making the game of golf affordable to the common man and woman, and his Northwestern brand put more golfers on the course than any other in the 20th century.

Rosasco is not only known for his contributions to the game of golf, but also to the game of life. Throughout his life, he has contributed millions of dollars to people in need, from underprivileged kids all over the world to Chi Chi Rodriguez when he was a fledgling pro.

Rosasco started “The Nat Rosasco Heritage Cup Youth Fund,” in which he raised nearly $2 million for physically challenged high school students who were in need of funding for college. Each year Rosasco awarded scholarships to recipients, both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees, to the college of their choice. Taking an interest in scholarship recipients, Rosasco met and followed each student’s progress to their degree. His kindness and generosity drew the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Dan Marino, Angelo Dundee, Carmen Basilio, Ted Hendricks and Joe Louis to sponsor and promote his cause. The Cook County Joe Louis Championship Golf Course recognized his compassion and generosity to others with a hole named in his honor.

Rosasco helped start the “Hook a Kid on Golf Foundation,” by donating money and supplying all the clubs for underprivileged children. He also donated and supplied all the clubs for the “West Palm Beach Children’s Golf Foundation,” which allowed handicapped children to enjoy the game of golf. Although he has accomplished much in his life, Rosasco’s proudest moment was personally spending time with Mother Teresa, due to his support of her humanitarian efforts.

Although we lost Rosasco three years ago, he will always be remembered as the “club king,” and his contributions to humanity will make his name live on forever, especially in the hearts of his family, his wife Eleanor, daughter Terri and three grandsons: Pat, Michael and Ronald.

Joey Saputo

Founding President of the Montreal Impact and 1st International NIASHF Inductee

First international inductee, Joey Saputo is a Canadian businessman and President of the Montreal Impact soccer team, which he founded in 1993.

Before entering the sports world, Saputo began his business career in 1985 with Saputo Inc., a dairy processing company founded in 1954 by his father, Emanuele “Lino” Saputo. Working his way up the ladder, he was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer of the Dairy Products Division for the United States five years later. After occupying various positions within the organization, he was named Senior Vice President of Commercial and Business Development in January 2004. Three years later Saputo left the family business–with his older brother Lino A. Saputo, Jr., still serving as CEO and President— in order to dedicate more time to his holding company, Free2Be and, more importantly, The Montreal Impact

When the Impact was originally founded, the Saputo Group was the team’s sole owner; however, under Saputo’s leadership in 1999, the club was sold to a group of shareholders. Three years later, the team was incorporated as a non-profit organization, with Saputo instrumental in the re-launch of the club. Following the re-launch Saputo took the reins as President and spearheaded the construction of Saputo Stadium, the team’s new home, inaugurated at Olympic Park, Montreal in 2008. The club entered Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2012 & oversaw an expansion to the Saputo Stadium. Under his leadership, the Impact won three championships and advanced the popularity of professional soccer to unprecedented heights in Quebec.

Actively involved in the Montreal community, Saputo serves on the boards of the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre Foundation, PROCURE, an organization that seeks to prevent and cure prostate cancer, and the Italian-Canadian Community Foundation. Saputo is the proud father of four sons.

Joan Salvato Wulff

Fly Fishing

The “First Lady of Fly Fishing”, Joan Salvato Wulff began her interest in the sport under her father’s guidance at the early age of 10 years old. Though competitive casting was big in the 1930’s, few females were interested in the sport, however that did not stop Salvato, who won her first title at age 11. The following year she began competing in regional tournaments.  At 16 Salvato won the Women’s Dry Fly Accuracy event, the first of an extraordinary 17 national casting titles she would capture between 1943 and 1960.

In 1948 Salvato was invited to the first post-war events in Europe.  Competing against professionals and amateurs of both sexes, Salvato won the baitcasting title in London, a remarkable achievement for any 21-year-old.  In 1951 she added five more national titles. Casting 131 feet against all-male competition, she became the first woman in history to win the Fisherman’s Distance Event.
Already the best female fly caster in America, Salvato was determined to make angling her career.  She became an audience favorite at shows, trick-casting in evening gowns and high heels.  In 1959 she became the first woman offered a salaried contract when she signed with the Garcia Corporation, a tackle manufacturer. In 1960 Joan stopped competing, but not before making an astounding 161-foot cast at one of her last events. Though designated “unofficial” (too few females had participated), it was a new women’s record.  

Salvato met her future husband, fellow fly fisherman, Lee Wulff while working in Newfoundland in 1966. They married the following year and settled in Keene, New Hampshire with Salvato’s two children. Married for 25 years, the Wulff’s were America’s most famous fishing couple, demonstrating together as a team, at shows, club dinners and clinics.

In 1979, the Joan and Lee Wulff Fishing School opened its doors along the Beaverkill River.  Above all, Salvato is devoted to teaching, and the school has become a world-renowned institution.  She went on to share her knowledge through a monthly column in Outdoor Life and the following year her casting columns began running in Rod & Reel, where they continued for 22 years.  She went on to write three books and appeared in numerous television shows and dvd’s.

Salvato has received multiple honors by the fishing tackle industry for her promotion of the sport to women. She is a founder of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum, a trustee of the International Game Fish Association and honorary director of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, Senior Advisor to the International Federation of Fly Fishers and 2007 Inductee of the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame.

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