Inducted in 2013
Football & Lacrosse Player, NCAA
Aviator, US Navy; Building Supplies Industry Salesman
Community Organizer

Induction Video

John Vrionis was born in New Rochelle, New York in March of 1946, the son of and Mary Kelly Vrionis and George Vrionis, Sr.  His mother, who had grown up in New Jersey, sold real estate.  John’s father, an insurance salesman, had arrived in this country as a child from Constantinople — today Istanbul — along with his hard-working, Greek-speaking family who, as John would tell, wasted no time in building their American dream.
 
Growing up in Larchmont, New York with his sister Mary Ann and brother George, Jr., John Vrionis was a member of St. Augustine’s Parish where he attended grammar school, was an altar server, and played basketball. In an event foreshadowing his later athletic success, he broke a twenty-year-old swimming record at the Larchmont Yacht Club at only nine years of age. Later that year, his athleticism was again a topic of town conversation when he pitched his Little League team to a championship title.
 
As John began to consider his options for high school, his mother was emphatic about his getting a Jesuit education, and so in 1960, John Vrionis began his daily commute on the New Haven Line down to the Rose Hill Campus.
 
“This was going to be a tough place” — John’s recollection of his early encounters with fellow Hall of Honor member Fr. Arthur Shea, SJ.  And, also by Vrionis’ estimation, no less daunting were the long Latin vocabulary lists that Fr. Thomas Crowley, SJ would assign for homework each night. Yet despite his early trepidation, the naturally charismatic, blue-eyed fourteen-year-old quickly adapted to Prep life, even finding himself elected president of his freshmen class.  As John would often recount, that election included some of most memorable and valuable lessons of his Hughes Hall, thanks to one Prep teacher in particular: Mr. Robert Wagner, Class of 1954, the one who had put John forward as a candidate for class president that first year.  In Vrionis’ own words, “Mr. Wagner taught me how to be a leader in the process.”
 
An athletic standout almost from his first day at the Prep, John played on two varsity squads: basketball and football. His coach on the gridiron: none other than fellow Hall of Honor member “Sammy” Ososki. Whatever the field, court or venue, in addition to the sheer elegance of ability, Vrionis was admired and respected for tenacity and fearlessness and was an inspiration to all around him.
 
During his last football season at the Prep, John was named to the Catholic Football Conference All Star Team, the CHSAA All-City Team and the All-City Prep School Team, among others.
 
As a leader on the basketball team, Vrionis also played many memorable games on the hardwood, including one against Power Memorial Academy, a national high school powerhouse whose star, Lew Alcindor, would later be known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. John played center in that game, and, as noted by his biographer and classmate, William Perry, “jump balls between Alcindor and Vrionis brought smiles even to the faces of the referees.” Power prevailed, but won by only 5 points. Ram fans gave their team a standing ovation when they left the floor that night. John always recalled the Prep’s performance in that game with pride, just as he did an 18-12 win against St. Agnes, in which he scored all three touchdowns and was carried off the field on his teammates’ shoulders.
 
John accepted a full football scholarship to Holy Cross, where he was a letter-winner on both the football and men’s lacrosse teams while completing a demanding major in economics. In John’s own words: “Fordham Prep taught me how to study, and I appreciated it when I arrived at Holy Cross. The preparation paid off.”
 
Playing for the Crusaders, he caught 39 career passes for 570 yards and seven touchdowns. He was key in some of Holy Cross’ most memorable victories of the day, including a win against Boston College in 1966 and against Yale in 1967 — the Bulldogs’ only loss of that season. During his senior year, John led the team with 511 receiving yards and 42 points scored.
 
Meanwhile, on the lacrosse field, Vrionis led the Holy Cross team in scoring as an upperclassman, with 49 points on 36 goals and 13 assists. He scored eight goals against Worcester Polytechnic Institute on April 13, 1968 setting a school single-game record that remained unbroken even at the time of his 2013 induction into the Prep Hall of Honor. Naturally, John was selected to play in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association North-South College All-Star Game that year.
 
Off the field, during his exciting years in Worcester, John would meet Lorraine “Lori” Brady, the woman who would become the great love of his life.  They were married on December 28, 1968.
 
After graduation, John joined the US Navy with the goal of becoming a pilot. While in flight training, he played football for the Navy's Pensacola Goshawks. One of his Goshawk teammates: future NFL Hall of Famer, Lieutenant Roger Staubach.  During his more than 4 years of active duty and 3 years as a reservist, Vrionis piloted several types of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. While the USS Forrestal was stationed in the Mediterranean, John, piloting a helicopter, rescued a downed pilot and his crew after their plane had crashed launching from the carrier.
 
After his years of service, John would go on to earn an MBA from Providence College, and pursued a career in building supplies sales at companies including Coral of Chicago, the Masonite Corporation, and Hauserman, Inc.  Meanwhile, Lori went on to become a math teacher, both in the classroom and as a private tutor, and, as new 21st-century technologies emerged, as the creator of an online interactive math homework tutoring site.
 
In 2010, Vrionis was inducted into the Holy Cross Varsity Club Hall of Fame for his achievements in both football and lacrosse.
 
John was the father of three: two daughters, Kristin and Lisa, and a son, John, Jr., and the grandfather of ten. He always remarked that he and Lori had made it a priority to pass on to their children the spiritual foundations that were set into them by their parents and that were deepened and solidified at Fordham Prep and Holy Cross.  Certainly, it is what kept the family strong through the most difficult of times.
 
John Vrionis spent his final years in Roswell, Georgia. Although he had been battling multiple sclerosis for decades, ever the "Man for Others" John became a volunteer at the local VA Hospital and Samaritan House in Atlanta, where he serve as an advocate for indigent men and women and helped them find paying jobs.  While the playing fields, courts, and venues of his younger days were long behind him,  John Vrionis was still admired and respected for his tenacity and fearlessness and was an inspiration to all around him.

John James Vrionis passed away on September 19, 2020. 

His compassion for others lives on in the hearts of all who knew him, and in the lasting commitment of the John Vrionis Scholarship Fund created by his former Prep classmates from the Class of 1964.