Rocky DiPietro was elected into the Football Ontario Hall of Fame. 

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Former Sault resident Rocky DiPietro was one of eight individuals elected to the Football Ontario Hall of Fame. 

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The former Hamilton Tiger-Cats pass catcher was informed last month by Mark DeNobile. 

“Anytime you are recognized for a hall of fame, I feel very honoured and grateful,” DiPietro said. “I don’t know much about the Ontario football hall of fame, I had to look it up, I looked up the names and I saw a couple of former teammates on there and players I played against. That is neat.” 

Hall of fame selection committee member Paul Orazietti paid hefty tribute to DiPietro, comparing his physical talents to that of Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce.

.”He is probably a modern-day Kelce in terms of being really big and powerful, but running more like a wide receiver,” Orazietti said. “For his time, when he played, he led the CFL multiple times in receiving yards, and at one point, was the all-time receiving leader. You really can’t get better than that. In the time he played, he was the best.”

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Orazietti is a member of the Football Ontario selection committee. 

Former Sault resident Doug Hargreaves was elected last year in the builder’s category.

Hargreaves was named national coach of the year in 1983, winning the Frank Tindall Award. Hargreaves is also a member of the Queen’s Coaches’ Hall of Fame, the Queen’s Football Hall of Fame and the Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame. Hargreaves died from cancer in July of 2016. 

Along with DiPietro, Dan Faraday, Paul Bennet, Rod Moors, Nancy Mantha and Dave Sapunjis were elected in the players category. Frank Cosentino was inducted via the builder’s category and Dave Williams in the referee category.   

“I got an email from DeNobile, he was the fellow who ran the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, had been there for many years, he emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know,” DiPietro said. 

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DeNobile was the executive director of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. He resigned from his post in 2021 and came on board as the chairperson of Ontario football hall of fame selection committee soon after. 

DiPietro starred as a receiver with the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the mid 70’s and helped lead the team to a Vanier Cup title in 1975. He played 13 years with Hamilton. DiPietro finished his career with 706 receptions for 9,762 yards and 45 touchdowns. 

The former Saulite won the Grey Cup in 1986. That year, he was recognized as an All-Canadian Slotback and took home the Lew Hayman Trophy. DiPietro was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1997. 

DiPietro credits some of success to his formative years in the Sault. He feels the overall competitive atmosphere in high school athletics provided him with a solid foundation for his football success. 

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“I always said, and I think it still rings true, the Sault is always competitive, every high school was very competitive in all the sports,” DiPietro said. “I think that was a good breeding ground for me.  One advantage was getting a chance to play for the Steelers when I was in high school. The teachers had a work to rule strike in my last year at the collegiate, so I got a chance to play for the Steelers. At that time, they were playing a fall league. It worked out well for me.” 

“We are privileged to have had such a great football talent come out of our city. I was thrilled to support his nomination,” Orazietti added.

Two years in the making

The Football Ontario Hall of Fame is a recent creation. For now, it’s a virtual hall of fame only. 

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“The Ontario football hall of fame is only two years old,” Orazietti said. “It is long overdue and something that should have happened decades ago. There was a push by Football Ontario to really make this happen and over the last couple of years DeNobile put together the board.”

“I don’t want to make any disparaging remarks, but I hadn’t heard of it,” DiPietro added. “When I got the email from DeNobile, I just googled it.” 

The 2023 inductee class was the first group selected by the hall. 

“More exposure will come as Football Ontario finds different venues to present these awards and we are playing catchup because we have 100 years of football players and coaches that we are trying to get inducted,” Orazietti added. “Hopefully, every year we continue to grow and get more recognition of who was inducted.”

Orazietti says the committee, originally six, but now at eight members, comes from a varied background with broad experiences in football over numerous years.

“Our job is to evaluate and assess,” Orazietti said.

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