Cefalo
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The Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick’s annual dinner will have a little Italian flair this year.
Former Pittston Area and Penn State star Jimmy Cefalo will serve as keynote speaker for the event, set for March 17th at the Woodlands Inn and Resort. Tickets can be purchased through any member of the organization or can be bought at the Pittston Knights of Columbus any Thursday evening.
In addition to being a star football player, Cefalo is an Emmy award-winning radio and television broadcaster, writer, voice of the Miami Dolphins, entrepreneur, food and wine lover and educator.
He was also in the broadcast booth for Penn State’s national championship-clinching victory over Miami in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, calling the game for NBC.
Cefalo began his football career at Pittston High School, playing for legendary coach Bob Barberi. He was named a consensus high school all-American and a member of the Pennsylvania Football News All-Century Team.
One of the country’s most highly recruited high school athletes, Cefalo had the opportunity to write a series of article for the New York Times about his life as a scholar athlete.
“I was 14 years old when the siege began and 17 when it ended,” Cefalo wrote in the first article. “I received 2,856 pieces of mail, was contacted by six United States congressmen, the governor of Maryland, Hank Aaron, hundreds of businessmen and about 150 college football coaches.
“I was an all-America high school running back.”
Cefalo was a standout at Penn State University from 1974 to 1977 under the tutelage of the iconic Coach Joe Paterno. He led the Nittany Lions in all-purpose yards his senior season. He was instrumental in Penn State’s 41-20 victory over Baylor in the 1975 Cotton Bowl and was named most valuable player of the 1976 Gator Bowl.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the school and graduated in 1978. In 2007, Penn State awarded Cefalo the prestigious Alumni Fellow Award.
After graduating from Penn State, Cefalo was a third-round draft choice of the Miami Dolphins. He would go on to play for seven seasons in Miami, once again playing for a legendary coach in Don Shula. He played in Super Bowls XVII and XIX, and at one point held the record for longest touchdown reception in the game.
His 76-yard scoring play against the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVII is now the fifth longest pass in Super Bowl history.
In 1984, Cefalo caught the Dan Marino pass that broke the record for touchdown passes in a season.
He is featured in the National Italian American Hall of Fame in Chicago.
He and his business partner, Brenda Bassett, own Cefalo-Bassett LLC and Cefalo’s International and are partners of The Beach Channel, a television station and production company that airs from Palm Beach to Key West.
For the past nine years, they have co-hosted the radio/television/digital program “HCA’s East Florida Eat This Drink That Go!”
Cefelao is the host of “South Florida’s First News” for WIOD 610, iHeartmedia host and play-by-play announcer and for the Dolphins radio broadcast team.
In 2002, Cefalo and Bassett began Cefalo’s Wine Cellar LLC with a 3,40- square-foot retail/liquor store located in South Miami.