Scholastic Sports Roundup: The Fullers: a real family affair

April 9, 2021 Andy Furman

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Vinnie Fuller captained the 1975-76 Lafayette High basketball team that reached the New York City finals, before falling to Canarsie.

His four sons have kept the Fuller name alive in the sports world.

Free-agent cornerback Kyle, who earned one of his two Pro Bowl selections with Vic Fangio as his defensive coordinator, agreed to a one-year-deal with the Denver Broncos last week.

Denver moved quickly to add Fuller to their defense after he was released by the Chicago Bears, where Fangio had been defensive coordinator for four years before he was hired as head coach for the Broncos in 2019. Fuller agreed to a one-year, $9.5 million deal, with $9 million guaranteed.

Kyle attended Virginia Tech – as did his older brothers – all former Hokie football players.

His eldest brother, Vincent, is a retired NFL safety who spent the majority of his career with the Tennessee Titans.

His older brother, Corey, previously played for the Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints. Their youngest brother, Kendell, is a cornerback for the Washington Football Team. Kendell won Super Bowl LIV with the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Fullers are only the second family to send four brothers to the NFL. The only family that has had four brothers play in the NFL to this point is the Browners – Jim, Joey, Keith and Ross. The Gronkowskis likely will match the feat this year when Glenn, a draft-eligible Kansas State fullback, follows in the footsteps of brothers Rob, Dan and Chris.

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Harold (Heshie) Becker, the long-time assistant basketball coach to Gil Fershtman at Lafayette High has been following the NCAA basketball tournament from Florida and notices some rather interesting roster notes.

Utah State had two players from Poland, one each from Canada, Portugal, Australia and Ukraine.

The University of Hartford recruits hailed from the Czech Republic (2), one each from Slovakian Australia and New Zealand.

He also notes that No. 1-ranked Gonzaga has players coming to their Spokane, Washington campus from Mali, Lithuania, Russia and France.

“You need an atlas to recruit college basketball players today,” Becker says.

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When Syracuse met – and defeated West Virginia – in the second-round of this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, it marked only the second-time two coaches met with over 900-career wins.

Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim entered with 1,082 wins and West Virginia’s Bob Huggins had an even 900. The last time this happened –when Syracuse met Duke with Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 1,157 wins.

After the University of Houston defeated Cincinnati, 91-57 in Ft. Worth, Texas for the championship of the American Athletic Conference, Cougars’ head coach Kelvin Sampson’s note to Scholastic Roundup read: “One of these days – we aren’t that good – they aren’t that bad.”

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A big recent loss for the basketball fraternity in South Florida. Martin Groveman, a former Tilden High basketball star and a CCNY basketball Hall of Famer passed. After college, he became a guidance counselor, principal and eventually Superintendent of New York City Special Education.

Mehmet Oz – better known as Dr. Oz played safety on Harvard’s football team and won an intramural college championship playing water polo. He was awarded the Captain’s Athletic Award for leadership in college and was class president and then student body president during medical school.

In 2019, Oz played for the “Home” roster during the All-Star Celebrity Game at the Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Also, in 2019, Oz played for Team Cleveland in Major League Baseball’s All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

Ira Levine, who coached basketball at Lafayette High from 1980-99 reports via social media his 1992 captain Phil Washington has recently passed.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected].