ED HANNON

1976

When Ed Hannon came to Nanuet midway through his sophomore year, he didn’t know what to expect. After all, Nanuet in the mid-1970s was a lot different than his previous stomping grounds, the Inwood section of Manhattan. Ed had been captain of the All Hallows High School ice hockey team as a freshman and would’ve played that sport had Nanuet offered it.

It’s not as if he lacked choices, though. At 6-feet, 230 pounds, Ed’s hulking athlete’s frame would be an asset in virtually any sport he tried. Nanuet classmates and coaches were only too happy to have the big man lend his size and potential skills to their teams.

After latching on with the JV lacrosse team at the end of his sophomore year, Ed was persuaded by head varsity football coach Dale Abeling to come out for the gridiron the following fall. Thus began a two-year merry-go-round of football, wrestling and lacrosse that resulted in four All-County designations, one Section 9 individual title and a reputation as one of the more multitalented big men to wear a Nanuet uniform.

In football, Ed was a second-team All-County fullback both his junior and senior years, and was named first-team running back on the New York Daily News All-Star team his senior season. He finished fourth in rushing in the Rockland PSAL as a junior and third as a senior, pounding for 515 yards and averaging 5 yards per carry during an eight-game season in the fall of ’75. He also finished third in scoring as a junior and fourth as a senior with 32 points. Doubling as a placekicker, Ed banged through eight extra points, which was the second-best PAT total in the county that year.

One of his finest memories was the Homecoming game versus Ramapo his junior year. With Nanuet trailing 14-0, Ed scored two touchdowns and ran in the two-point conversion late in the game to give the Knights an uplifting 14-14 tie. “Even though it was a tie, it felt like a win,” Ed says. Defeating perennially strong North Rockland his senior year was another highlight.

Abeling’s Veer offense took advantage of Nanuet’s explosive running game featuring a backfield of Ed at fullback, fellow co-captain J.P. Bonomolo at quarterback and mercurial Paul Dertinger at halfback. “Ed was the biggest kid running the ball in the county,” says Abeling. “He was strong and surprisingly fast and agile for a big guy.”

In wrestling, Ed endured a learning curve his junior year as he adjusted to the rigorous training required. “Wrestling was by far the toughest of the three sports,” says Ed, who was co-captain as a senior with State runner-up Paul Pietropaolo. “You’re working out and working out, but it got you in great shape. It was one on one – you’re leaving it all out there.”

As a senior Ed placed third as a heavyweight (189 to 215 lbs.) at the Rockland County championship tournament. Coach Mike Achille then moved him up to super heavyweight (215 to 275 lbs.) for the Section 9 championships and Ed wound up winning the tournament to qualify for the New York State championships, where he lost twice and was knocked out.

“Super heavyweight was the real big boys,” says Achille. “Ed was a lot more agile than those big kids. He was a great kid to work with. He coined an expression that stuck with us. When things got tough, he said, ‘A wrestling season is a long road.’”

The road from wrestling to lacrosse was a short one, however. “There was no break,” Ed says. “If wrestling season ended on a Friday or Saturday, lacrosse began that Monday.” Although lacrosse was not Ed’s favorite sport, it was the one he excelled at the most. A 220-lb. midfielder who was “definitely fast for a guy my size,” Ed made first-team All-County as a junior and second-team All-County as a senior, when he co-captained the team with high-scoring Jim McCormick.

Ed earned a partial athletic scholarship for wrestling to Southern Connecticut State University but wound up playing hockey instead during his two years there. He moved to California and lived with Nanuet classmate Vin Quiros for three years in Huntington Beach and Davis, outside of Sacramento, earning an associate’s degree from American River College, a two-year community college.

Ed then moved back to Rockland and later joined the New York Police Department. He retired from the force three years ago as a detective based in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, not far from his boyhood home in Inwood. Ed, who’s 50, has one son, Marc, a sophomore at SUNY Albany and former captain and linebacker for the Walter Panas football team in Westchester County.

When Ed was in training at the Police Academy in 1986 he decided to run the New York City Marathon and finished in 4 hours 27 minutes, not bad for a 225-pounder. “I won my weight class,” he says with a chuckle. These days his game is golf and “I just try to hit the ball straight.”

Golf is an outlet that allows Ed to continually reinforce his Nanuet ties. He plays in a foursome of longtime buddies that’s known in local golfing circles as the “IronHeads”: Class of ’76 schoolmates Lou Guarino, who opened holes for Ed on the offensive line; Bonomolo, who executed countless handoffs to Ed; and Pete Ryan, another close friend and classmate. Guys like these made Ed feel welcome when he was a newcomer to the neighborhood and he hasn’t forgotten them. “It was a home run for me moving to Nanuet,” Ed concludes.