Saturday: Veltidi To Enter Nanuet Hall of Fame

Nanuet Sports Hall of Fame 10th Annual Dinner is this Saturday and five are being inducted:

• Rob Veltidi 1965
• Dick Berich 1968
• Ray Perez 1968
• John Hassler 1968

BOB VELTIDI

• Football, Wrestling, Baseball & Track
• Class of 1965

Although most Rockland sports buffs would associate his name and reputation more closely with Suffern High School, make no mistake about it: Bob Veltidi is a Nanuet kid born and bred. Growing up on Englewood Avenue as the oldest of Patsy and Lillian Veltidi’s three boys, Bob – or Robbie, as he was known then – launched his athletic career as a catcher in the Nanuet Little League and progressed though the Nanuet system to become a valued pillar of the varsity football, wrestling and baseball teams.

Bob was a three-year, two-way starter for the football team under Coach Mike Achille, playing center and linebacker his sophomore and junior years and spearheading the defense at middle linebacker his senior year while playing tackle on offense. As a senior he led the team in tackles, was voted best defensive player and MVP by his teammates, and earned Journal-News “Player of the Week” honors for making 13 solo tackles and blocking two punts in a 14-13 victory over archrival Pearl River. He also claimed All-County honors twice from The Journal-News, at tackle and center.

“I was lucky in the fact that I’m a big guy. I’m a football player. I was a football fanatic from the seventh grade on. I lived and breathed for the sport. Everything I did was centered around football. I wound up as a linebacker in my junior and senior year. At that point in time football completely encompassed my life. From the time I was in the 7th grade, I couldn’t even play in 7th grade, I just had to watch but I lived for it. The Rockland County PSAL made for some great athletics. You played within the county, everyone you played, you knew. You hung out with each other and saw each other after the games. It was a very tight knit community in Rockland.

In wrestling Bob got his start at Highview School as the intramural champion in fifth and sixth grades. By the time he reached high school he was already an experienced grappler and won a varsity match at 175 pounds as a freshman after being called up from the JV. He went on to a solid three-year varsity career as a heavyweight, notching two third-place finishes and one fourth in the Rockland County PSAL tournament and winning 17 of his 21 matches as a senior. He also was a two-time runner-up in the Orange County Community College tournament.

Baseball was a natural athletic outlet for Bob since his father was heavily involved in the Nanuet Little League, Patsy having served as one of its first managers, coaching the Pirates to league championships three of the first four years, and skippering the league’s first All-Star team. Bob was first-string catcher for the Pirates for four straight years and played on two league title teams, including its first championship squad in 1958, and started on the league’s first All-Star team in 1960.

Bob learned at an early age the importance of giving back to the Nanuet schools athletic community. His father played integral roles in the development of the Nanuet Little League, Black & Gold Club, Jerry Leo Memorial Scholarship fund, Nanuet Alumni Association, Little Brown Jug Game and the Nanuet-Pearl River Alumni Football Game, not to mention a pivotal involvement in the chartering of Nanuet Junior-Senior High School itself.

In wrestling Bob was varsity assistant/upper-weight class coach under head coach Bill White from 1976 to ’87, putting a heavyweight finalist in the County and Section 1 tournaments every year. The Mounties won five County and eight Sectional crowns during Bob’s 17-year tenure with the program, including the first five as freshman coach.

Bob has served in a leadership capacity for numerous local athletic organizations. He was Section 1 Football Coaches Association president from 1988 to 1997 and vice president from 1985 to ’87. He also was Rockland County Coaches Association president for four years (1999-2003) and vice president for five years (1993-98). He officiated at the County track & field championships for 17 years (1971-88) and was widely heralded as the voice of the County wrestling tournament, having served as public address announcer and meet coordinator from 1990 to 2003.

Among his other notable accomplishments, Bob was a founder of the Suffern High School Sports Hall of Fame and an originator, coach and coordinator of the Suffern Alumni Football Game; is a member of the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame board of directors and the emcee of its annual induction gala; a recipient of the inaugural Julie D’Agostino Award for service to the Rockland wrestling community (1999) and the Football Coaches Service Award from Section 1 (1998); and, following the lead of his late father – who was a 2005 Nanuet Hall of Famer himself in the community service category – Bob served on the Jerry Leo Memorial Scholarship committee.

Bob, who is 64, lives in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., with his wife of 42 years, Judy. He has two children: Sally, 33, the recreation supervisor for the Town of Eastchester in Westchester County; and Doug, 31, a personal banker and small business specialist at Chase Bank in Orangeburg.

*Biographies Courtesy of Jamie Kempton of the Nanuet Hall of Fame Committee.