For Steve Peretzman, it was a long time coming.
The former Port Richmond HS head football coach received an overdue honor Wednesday when Abraham Lincoln HS added the football lifer to its Athletic Honor Roll during a ceremony at the Brooklyn school.
Peretzman, who graduated from Lincoln in June of 1965, was a star running back for the Railsplitters and many thought the Brooklyn native should have been added to the prestigious wall list years ago. Peretzman, mind you, also served as head coach at his alma mater during the 1970s.
Charlie Pravata, Peretzman’s former teammate and close friend and ex-Lincoln head football coach himself, believed adding Peretzman to the Athletic Honor Roll was a no-brainer and lobbied Lincoln’s administration to make it a reality. He lauded Lincoln principal Ari Hoogenboom, athletic director Renan Ebeid and current head football coach Shawn O’Connor for signing off on it.
“Steve was a great running back — a tremendous athlete who was fast and had powerful legs,’’ said Pravata, a 1967 graduate of Lincoln who assisted Peretzman at the Brooklyn school before his head coaching stint. The Levittown, L.I., resident was also head coach and assistant athletic director at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. “I remember a game in 1964. Lincoln was playing Boys High (now Boys and Girls HS) and they were a tremendous team. It was a close game and he caught a screen pass and went 74 yards down the sideline to win the game. It was on the sports pages of the New York Times when they still covered high school sports.
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