Italian American Digest Winter Digest 2018 | Page 8

WINTER 2018
PAGE 8
haul them across the country.
Candies and Hughes won 45
major events between 1970 and
1994, including 28 NHRA titles in
the Funny Car and Top Fuel divi-
sions. Their reign started with the
1970 Gatornationals win in their
new 1970 Barracuda and the 1971
Summernationals Funny Car win.
With Ohio-native Mark Oswald
driving, they would become the
first team to win both NHRA and
IHRA Winston championships in
the same year. The team finished
with five IHRA championships
and two NHRA championships,
and had nine top-five seasons.
Candies and Hughes terrorized
the strip for four decades. Both
men were inducted into the Inter-
national Drag Racing Hall of Fame
in 1999.
LOCAL INDUCTEE
JOHN PHILIP FOTO II
Gino Bartali: Legendary Italian Cyclist
and Secret War Hero
By Enrico Villamaino
Gino Bartali smuggled documents to aid Jews seeking to escape the Nazis during World War II
ino Bartali was an Italian cy-
deportation to concentration camps. (albeit with a special dispensation
cling champion whose athletic The cardinal, who had performed
to perform his duties on a bicycle),
feats alone made him worthy of
his friend Bartali’s wedding cere-
became the lifeblood of this effort,
remembrance in both his native
mony just three years earlier, turned transporting papers and photo-
country and the world over. Among to the cyclist for help. Bartali, a
graphs between the photographers,
his achievements were victories
devout Catholic known in the press printers, and forgers needed to
in the 1936, 1937, and 1946 Giro
as “Gino the Pious,” agreed to take complete these travel papers. He
d’Italia, and the 1938 and 1948
part in the dangerous undertaking.
would perform these feats right un-
Tour de France. Bartali, however,
In short, Bartali became the
der the noses of the Nazis by hiding
led a secret life that took him from
secret courier for an intricate and
these papers in the hollow frame of
the realm of mere sports hero to
clandestine escape network com-
his bicycle and its handlebars.
that of genuine war hero and hu-
prised of photographers, printers,
Bartali was able to accomplish
manitarian.
forgers, and a number of priests
this due to his public position and
Bartali was born near Florence in and nuns throughout the northern
fame; he received special permis-
1914, the son of a small farmer. His Italian peninsula.
sion from the occupying forces to
first job was at age 13 as an assis-
This network, which ran between move about the region, and almost
tant bicycle mechanic. He became a Florence and Assisi—about 110
all of Italy, unrestricted. This was
professional cyclist at age 21.
miles apart—hid hundreds of Jew-
ostensibly to allow for him to con-
In 1943, when the Nazis came
ish families throughout the coun-
tinue with his legendary and nev-
to occupy northern Italy, a large
tryside in safe houses, monasteries, erending training regimen. No one,
community of displaced Jews fled
and seminaries. In order to smuggle not even Nazi soldiers, wanted to
to Florence, where a local rabbi
these families to safer locations in
disturb Bartali as he rode, fearing
turned to the archbishop of Flor-
the south, false documents hiding
the outcry from the local popula-
ence, Cardinal Della Costa, for as-
their Jewish heritage were needed.
tion who held him to be a national
sistance in protecting these imper-
Bartali, who served in the Italian
icon. Nevertheless, he likely would
iled Jews from capture and certain
Army’s motorcycle courier corps
have been swiftly executed on the
G
J
ohn Foto grew up in the
Lakeview neighborhood of
New Orleans, where he began
his sports career at Lakeview
Playground playing football and
baseball. His father, Philip Foto,
was a huge influence in his life,
mentoring him in all aspects of
athletics. Foto attributes much of
his athletic success to his father,
who passed away in 2016.
In 1968, Foto enrolled into De
La Salle High School, where he
became a standout athlete as a
three-sport letterman. He let-
tered two years as football quar-
terback for the Cavaliers, three
years as a center fielder on the
baseball team, and two years in
track and field.
In 1977, Foto received an ath-
letic scholarship to attend Tulane
University for baseball. He was a
four-year stand-out for the Green
Wave, where he led the team with
a career batting average of .368.
Foto also held season and career
records in stolen bases and was
Italian American Digest
awarded team MVP in two of his
seasons. He was named Tulane
Athlete of the year in 1977.
Foto was inducted into the Tu-
lane Hall of Fame in 2000 and the
De La Salle Sports Hall of Fame in
2014. He now lives in Mission Viejo,
Calif., with his wife, Lisa. They have
three children and five grandchil-
dren. John owns a chain of dis-
count stores in the Los Angeles
area.