SCHENECTADY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
2026 ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES ANNOUNCED
SCHENECTADY - The Schenectady City School District Athletic Hall of Fame Committee is pleased to announce that its 2026 inductees will be Richard “Rit” DiCaprio, Sheila Dixon, Nelson Griffin and Ernest Houghton. This year’s dinner will also include a Special Tribute honoring the late Tony Cristello. There will also be a Legacy Flashback honoring the 1934 National Championship Nott Terrace High School cross-country team.
Richard “Rit” DiCaprio played four years of varsity football at Mont Pleasant High School. His 1967 team was undefeated and ranked #1 in New York. His four Mont Pleasant teams won three Class “A” League championships. He was a three-time All-County selection. He also wrestled and was a shot putter and discus thrower. DiCaprio later played football at the University of Maryland where he earned two varsity letters (freshmen were ineligible to play varsity and he was injured as a sophomore). He was a defensive end and played on special teams. Future NFL standout and Football Hall of Famer Randy White was a teammate. As a junior, Maryland finished 8-4 (5-1 in the ACC) and was ranked 20th in the nation. Maryland lost to Georgia (17-16) in the Peach Bowl. The following year (1974) Maryland won the Atlantic Coast Conference title (6-0 conference record). Maryland finished 8-4 and was ranked 13th in the nation. Losses were to Alabama (21-16), Penn State (24-17), Florida (17-10) and Tennessee (7-3, in the Liberty Bowl). Maryland outscored its opponents 316-104 and shut out five opponents in 1974. DiCaprio later played semi-pro football for the Metro Mallers. He was also an assistant football coach at Schenectady HS from 1991 to 1999. He is a Capital Region Football Hall of Fame member.
Sheila Dixon was a four-year varsity basketball player at Schenectady High School. She led Schenectady to the 2008-09 Big Ten girls’ basketball title, averaging 13.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists. She had 35 points, ten rebounds and ten assists in a 93-92 overtime victory vs. Amsterdam as a senior. She was the Big Ten Conference MVP as a senior. She made numerous area all-star teams and was a 2009 New York State Class “AA” 4th team selection. Dixon later played at Brown University, where she averaged double figures in three of her four varsity seasons. She finished her Brown career with 1,070 points. As a junior she was named Cox Sports Division I Rhode Island Women’s Player of the Year. She was also MVP of the Brown Classic as a junior. Dixon was an All-Ivy League second team selection as a sophomore and a junior and honorable mention selection as a senior. She was Ivy League Player of the Week twice during her career, earned a team MVP award, and was twice selected as Brown’s best defensive player. She later played in Scotland and for FC Barcelona in Spain, helping her team win the Catalan Championship. Dixon is a New York State Basketball Hall of Fame member.
Nelson Griffin lettered in cross country, indoor & outdoor track and wrestling at Mont Pleasant HS. He was a hurdler and sprinter on three Mont Pleasant Section II championship outdoor track & field teams. He was the anchor runner on a school record setting 440-yard relay team in 1968. Griffin went on to letter in track & field at SUNY Farmingdale & SUNY Cortland. He returned to Schenectady and was the boys’ varsity outdoor track & field coach (31 seasons) at Mont Pleasant HS & Schenectady HS, the girls’ & boys’ varsity cross country coach (11 years) at MPHS & SHS and assistant track & field coach at Linton HS (3 years) His Mont Pleasant teams won Class B Sectional Track & Field championships in 1989 and 1990. His 2001 Schenectady HS team finished undefeated & won the Section II Class “A” Championship Meet, as well as the Eddy Meet & Schenectady Invitational. He coached three boys’ State champions (Art Allen, Jahez Salahuddin and Verrol Jackson) and had a very significant role in the development of State champion Rhonda Phillips. He coached 51 Sectional champions. He had a 202-32 record in Big Ten Conference dual meets, won seven Big Ten dual meet championships & eight Big Ten Meet Championships. His 2002 team won the New York State Sportswriters Championship. His 800 relay team set a Section II record (1:28.88) in 2001. He was the head basketball coach at Mont Pleasant HS (1989-90) and assistant coach for the 1998 & 2001 Schenectady HS State championship basketball teams. Griffin was the Big Ten Track & Field chairman (1987-2007) and Everett Grout Cross Country Meet director (1992-2001). He was an Empire State Games (Adirondack Region) track & field head coach (1987-2006) and assistant coach (1981-1986). He was also a successful assistant track coach at Union Grove HS in Georgia, where he coached four State champions.
Ernest Houghton played basketball at the original Schenectady HS. He was a 3-sport standout at Union College (basketball guard, quarterback on the first undefeated Union football team & hard-hitting first baseman on the baseball team). He led Union to an 11-3 basketball record in 1914 & a 13-1 record in 1915. Union won the Northeastern Intercollegiate League championship both years. He was a basketball All-American in 1914 & 1915 (other 1915 All-Americans came from Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Wisconsin, Kansas, Illinois, Virginia, Washington & Army). He retroactively received the 1915 Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year Award (an award also won by John Wooden, George Mikan, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Lew Alcindor, Pete Maravich, Bill Walton & Larry Bird). Sportswriter Nat Fleischer reported that “The Union star was one of the greatest guards yet developed in the history of intercollegiate basketball.” Houghton played in the New York State League, one of earliest pro basketball leagues in America. He is a Union College Athletics Hall of Fame member.
A “Special Tribute” at this year’s dinner will honor the late Tony Cristello. Cristello was the Athletic Hall of Fame’s outstanding artist since its inception in 1998. He made large collages honoring inductees each year, produced paintings (including one of Pat Riley), created tributes to the Schenectady HS State championship basketball teams, and put in countless hours decorating the trophy cases at Schenectady HS, as well as producing other hall of fame artwork.
A brief “Legacy Flashback” will honor the 1934 Nott Terrace High School cross country team that won the American Interscholastic Cross-Country Championship in Newark, New Jersey, defeating 59 high schools and preparatory schools from around the United States and Canada. This national championship was one of seventeen won by Bill Eddy’s Schenectady High School and Nott Terrace High School teams. Athletic Hall of Famer Ray Vacca finished fourth in the National Run. Vacca & teammate Richard Slade were both selected on the 1934 All-American Cross-Country Team. Vacca, Slade, Cletus Stamper, captain Mathew Eggleston and John Foley comprised the team that won the national title. Other members of the team included Edwin Lagasse, William St. Onge, John Eddy and Addison Fuller.