Scott Pitoniak

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh is the greatest athlete you've never heard of--and so much more. A rocket-armed passer on the football field, an ankle-breaking playmaker on the basketball court, he was also a scholar, civil rights pioneer, patriot, and one other thing--forgotten. In this historical novel based on Sidat-Singh's life, sportswriter Breanna Shelton stumbles upon the riveting story of the former Syracuse University star who was forced to hide his identity in order to take the field, leading to climactic moments when race and sports collided. As a young Black woman making her way in a profession not ready to fully accept her, Shelton immerses herself in the research, determined to resurrect an inspirational man who time left behind. Along the way, she finds courage and perseverance to transform herself and her career. Post-civil rights era society still grapples with dispiriting obstacles that Sidat-Singh faced more than a half century earlier, when he was "passing" to play; serving as a Tuskegee Airman in World War II; and interacting with luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Grantland Rice, Sam Lacy, and Joe Louis. This fictionalized account, as timely now as ever, honors an American hero whose life was cut short while serving a country that didn't recognize him as a full-fledged citizen because of the color of his skin. After you read it, Sidat-Singh will be invisible no more.

A behind-the-scenes perspective on Buffalo Bills history from longtime broadcaster John Murphy As the longtime play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Bills, John Murphy knows what it means to live and breathe Bills football. In If These Walls Could Talk: Buffalo Bills, Murphy opens up about his life and career in Buffalo and provides insight into the team's inner sanctum as only he can, from Jim Kelly to Josh Allen and beyond. Featuring conversations with players and coaches past and present as well as off-the-wall anecdotes only Murphy can tell, this indispensable volume is your ticket to Bills history.

The son of a sheet-metal worker who led a big band on weekends, Lou Gramm rose from humble, working-class roots in Rochester, New York, to become one of rock ’n’ roll’s most distinctive and popular voices. With the aid of best-selling author Scott Pitoniak, Gramm poignantly recounts how he realized his dream as the lead singer and co-songwriter of the iconic band Foreigner as well as his own band and overcame a drug and alcohol addiction—along with a life-threatening brain tumor—on his path to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Surveying the university’s chronological history, with special focus on how Syracuse led the way in numerous important matters—gender, race, military veterans, and science. Forever Orange goes far beyond the parameters of a traditional institutional history. Authors Pitoniak and Burton have utilized exhaustive research, scores of interviews, and their own SU experiences to craft a book that explores what it has meant to be Orange since the school ’s founding as a small liberal arts college in 1870. Through narrative and hundreds of photos, Forever Orange presents SU’s glorious 150-year history in a lively, distinctive, informative manner, appealing to alumni and university friends, young and old.

Nationally acclaimed sportswriter Scott Pitoniak's Frozen in Time recounts the rich history and traditions of the RIT hockey program, and its rise from a humble team with hand-me-down jerseys to one of the nation's most respected athletic programs. Pitoniak's narrative, along with many photos old and new, brings to life the transformation of the RIT Tiger pucksters, chronicling the people, players, places and moments which enabled the men's and women's hockey teams to become national champions.

One of only 17 major-league players never to have spent a single day in the minors, Johnny Antonelli was a highly coveted phenom who signed a "bonus baby" contract with the Boston Braves for $52,000 a few days after graduating from Rochester's Jefferson High School in 1948. It wasn't until six years later, when he was traded to the New York Giants, that the stylish left-hander began realizing the potential the scouts had seen in him. In a seven-year stretch--from 1953-59--Antonelli was among baseball's best hurlers, compiling a 114-89 record, 22 shutouts and nine saves, while being named a National League All-Star five times. Following his baseball career, Antonelli became a successful entrepreneur in the tire business. Enjoy this inside look at the Golden Age of baseball.

From the last-second heroics of Wilmeth Sidat-Singh in Archbold Stadium to the last-second heroics of Donovan McNabb in the Carrier Dome more than a half century later, this book is a chronicle of the rich tradition of Syracuse University sports. There are games that stand the test of time - performances that years, even decades later bring a smile or in some cases a grimace, to a fan's face. They are indelible moments that, when strung together, give you a sense of a college's history. In ""Slices of Orange"", Sal Maiorana and Scott Pitoniak recapture the heroics of running back Jim Brown's 43-point performance against Colgate at old Archbold Stadium; the pain of Keith Smart's jumper that denied Syracuse a national title in 1987; and the joy of forward Carmelo Anthony's levitation act in the 2003 NCAA basketball championship game. They tell of the fierce SU-Georgetown basketball rivalry - and John Thompson's incendiary comments that ignited it - and how the Gait brothers, Paul and Gary, revolutionized the game of lacrosse and laid the foundation for a college sports dynasty.