Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame
Three Championship Teams Earn 2024 Team of Honor Recognition
The Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame (GSSHOF) dinner on Monday, November 11 will recognize championship teams from three local sport organizations, in addition to seven area sports standouts. The Fayetteville-Manlius girls lacrosse teams from 2004-05-06, the Corcoran girls basketball squads from 1997-98-99 and the GP/Syracuse Express teams from 1985-86-87 will be honored at the 37th annual GSSHOF dinner at the Oncenter Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center.
Tickets are on sale now (click here).
The GSSHOF Class of 2024 features Kim Black (swimming), Jack Hanley (basketball/baseball), Luke Hobika (golf), Dave Mirra (action sports), Pat Murphy (baseball), Kristen Taylor (lacrosse) and Susie Wynne (figure skating).
Fayetteville-Manlius Girls Lacrosse (2004-05-06)
Winning a state championship merits applause. Winning two in back-to-back seasons deserves a standing ovation. And coming one win shy of a three-peat completes a resume worthy of Hall of Fame recognition.
What a run those Fayetteville-Manlius High School girls lacrosse teams had two decades ago.
Coached by Hall of Famer Kathy Taylor, the Hornets began their historic feat in 2004 by ending West Genesee’s longest Section III winning streak (69 games).
F-M avenged a regular-season loss to Baldwinsville and beat Liverpool, 11-3, to nab the sectional Class-A crown. Next, Horseheads and Bethlehem were defeated. And in the New York State championship game, F-M toppled Rochester-area's Brighton, 13-7, marking the Hornets’ first state title of any kind in school history.
That 2004 club (21-2 and ranked No. 4 nationally) was led by the Central New York Player of the Year and first-team All-American Courtney Farrell. Kathy Taylor was Coach of the Year.
In 2005, F-M defeated West Genesee, 12-4, for the sectional crown, then rolled over Ithaca, 18-2, in the regional … Rush-Henrietta, 16-4, in the state semis … and repeated as NYS Class-A champion by upsetting powerhouse Bethlehem, 16-7. Taylor was again Coach of the Year, and her daughters, Kelly and Kristen, were first-team All-Americans for the Hornets (21-3 and ranked No. 3 nationally).
The 2004 and 2005 state champs posted a combined record of 42-5 and sent 13 players to compete collegiately — 11 at the Division I level.
In 2006, F-M claimed its third consecutive sectional title, beating West Genesee in a televised thriller that was decided when Kristen Taylor intercepted a Wildcat clear and ran through the defense to score the game-winner in the closing seconds of regulation.
Those Hornets then beat Horseheads in the regional and Farmingdale in the state semis. In its third straight state Class-A title game, F-M fell short, losing to Yorktown. Kristen Taylor was sectional Player of the Year and six seniors moved on to play Division I lacrosse.
For the excellence they demonstrated during the 2004, 2005 and 2006 high-school girls lacrosse seasons, the Fayetteville-Manlius Hornets are recognized as a Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame “Team of Honor” in 2024.
Corcoran Girls Basketball (1997-98-99)
The Corcoran Cougars certainly made for a remarkable bunch as they dominated girls high school basketball in Central New York back in the late 1990s.
They had not one, but two career 1,000-point scorers in Camille Murphy and Sameerah Aiken. They had, in Murphy, a CNY Player of the Year. They had four athletes who would go on to play collegiately. They had a head coach, Jim Marsh, who’d become one of only two girls coaches to win 500 games in Section III.
Oh, and they won three consecutive Section III Class-A championships (1997, 1998 and 1999) . . . and in 1998 became the first girls basketball squad in Syracuse-area history to earn a New York State Class-A title.
Their on-court leader was Murphy, who earned All-CNY First Team honors as both a junior and a senior. She ultimately took her talents to the University of Georgia where she played in one Final Four (1999) and two Elite Eights (1999 and 2000) with the Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Camille’s club — for which she started at point guard — won the Southeastern Conference championship.
But before she was a Bulldog, Murphy was a decorated Cougar who, in 1998, helped her state champion Corcoran squad make it to Glens Falls where it met New York City’s Christ The King in the NYS Federation title game.
Notably, Christ The King — which had won the previous eight Federation championships, mostly in blowout fashion— was the consensus No. 1 team in the nation with seven future college scholarship players, including its guard extraordinaire, Sue Bird.
The underdog Cougars lost that affair, 70-62. But it was a one-possession contest with a minute to play when Bird — destined for stardom at the University of Connecticut and in the WNBA — began her run of seven consecutive made free throws to decide the outcome.
The first sentence in the New York Times article recapping the game the following morning said it all:
“What is more remarkable than Christ The King’s ninth straight New York State Federation girls title is that the Royals had to fight for it.”
Because the Corcoran Cougars were on the other side.
For the excellence they demonstrated during the 1997, 1998 and 1999 high-school girls basketball seasons, the Corcoran Cougars are recognized as a Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame “Team of Honor” in 2024.
GP/Syracuse Express (1985-86-87)
Area football fans would consider this a pretty easy trivia question: Back in the day, which local team suited up players named Glenn Moore and Mandel Robinson, Mike Kmetz and Roland Grimes, Dave Jacobs and Bill Pendock, Garry Acchione and Jerome Hall and so on and so forth?
The easy answer is Syracuse University. But the just as accurate one is the GP/Syracuse Express, which went 36-6 across the 1985-86-87 seasons and won a pair of Minor Professional League national championships in 1985 and 1987.
Indeed, 15 former Orangemen helped the Express to football glory during those title years. As did, of course, Ray Seals — the former Hotel Syracuse doorman who, as a starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers, would later sack Dallas’ Troy Aikman in Super Bowl XXX.
So, there was some talent on those championship clubs, including two other athletes who’d compete in the NFL, Jacobs and Chuck Cassidy. And there was an embrace of those squads as they were filled with so many faces familiar to folks throughout Central New York.
And that combination makes the Express, which defeated the Chicago Cowboys (7-6 at muddy Griffin Field in 1985) and the San Jose Bandits (13-7 in glitzy Las Vegas in 1987) for their crowns, a worthy choice for one of the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame’s “Teams of Honor” for 2024.
Now, there is no lack of history when it comes to minor league football, which dates back to the late 19th century and has served as an incubator of sorts for the celebrated likes of Johnny Unitas, Kenny Stabler, Bob Kuechenberg, Marv Hubbard, Otis Sistrunk, Eric Swann, Joe Gilliam, Sam Wyche, Garo Yepremian, Tom Dempsey and a bunch of other alums.
And the Express — which competed in the Empire Football League and was owned by Greg Portzline, coached by Tom Anthony and cheered by supportive crowds at old Griffin Field in Liverpool — will forever remain part of that colorful tapestry.
“We weren’t in the conversation to win it all,” said Portzline at the time. “But we proved them wrong. It was our honor to have been contributing factors to these teams’ incredible success.”
For the excellence it demonstrated during the 1985, ’86 and ’87 minor-league football seasons, the GP/Syracuse Express is recognized as a Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame “Team of Honor” in 2024.
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