John Canavan attended Blessed Sacrament and achieved Honor Roll status all four years. John played freshman football, freshman basketball and junior varsity basketball. From 1957 - 1959, Canavan played varsity football on both sides of the field, and became team captain in 1959. John was the area's leading scorer for the second consecutive year scoring 49 points. He also starred on the basketball court as a forward leading his team in scoring and rebounding in 1960averaging  19 points per game. He earned All-County honors in both football and basketball in 1959-60. John was selected to the Daily News Metropolitan team in 1959. He attended West Point for one year before transferring to Rutgers University where he joined the varsity football program. Canavan, not just a football player at Rutgers, joined the Lacrosse team during the years 1962-64 making All-American in 1964. After his distinctive service to our nation John returned to Rutgers and received his graduate degree in business.

Gordon was a three sport player, coach and official. Gordy earned All-Metropolitan honors as a second baseman at New Rochelle High. He played on a scholarship at Arnold College. Gordon played baseball at Cornell University while attending an officer's program of the United States Navy. Gordy was a player/coach of the “Ramblers", the New Rochelle City Baseball Champions. He coached at Salesian High School as varsity coach of the baseball and basketball teams in 1951 and '52. He held the same positions at Blessed Sacrament High School in 1953 and '54. He held the position of Assistant Head football coach at BS from 1951-1954. In 1955 Gordon Macdonald was named head coach of football, basketball and baseball at Eastern Military Academy at Huntington Long Island. He was awarded Coach of the Year honors for football in 1957. In 1952 Gordy helped pioneer the New Rochelle Little League and served it for twelve years.

John led the NRHS baseball team in batting as a senior and was named Team MVP and earned Honorable Mention All-Conference. He played guard on the 1985 undefeated Conference Championship Boys Basketball Team and 1986 New York State Section 1 Championship Team. On the gridiron he was named All-Conference and All-County, offensive game MVP of the Turkey Bowl and game MVP of the Class A Bowl. As a senior, John earned team MVP honors, named All-Conference, All-County, All-State, selected for the prestigious National Football Foundation Golden Dozen Award, and awarded the William "Brud" Flowers Scholarship. While at Cornell he was part of the 1988 & 1990 Ivy Championship teams. He graduated third on the all-time Cornell career rushing list. He was a First Team All-Ivy pick in 1990 and the runner-up for player of the year. He finished the 1990 season second in the nation in all-purpose running in Division 1AA football. After the 1991 season McNiff was named the team MVP, as well as being named MVP of the 1991 EPSON/IVY Bowl All-Star game in Tokyo, Japan.