Fufi Santori
Encyclopedia
Jose Santori Coll better known as Fufi Santori, is a well known former BSN basketball
player, coach
and television sportscaster. He was also a physical education
, basketball and tennis
instructor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
for close to thirty years. Fufi Santori is of obvious Corsican-Puerto Rican descent which is common and well known on the island.
at an early age. He grew up with pro-independence political ideas; his grand father Cayetano Coll y Cuchí
was Speaker of the House of Representatives and his grand uncle José Coll y Cuchí
was the founder of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
. An avid sports fan, Santori was also a member of the Puertorrican Olympic Basketball Team that participated ein the 1960 Olympiad in Rome. He was a tennis player and coach. While still a teenager, in 1944, Santori and his brother Tito boarded what was Puerto Rico's only passenger train
to attend a Boy Scouts Rally in Hatillo, Puerto Rico.
http://www.publictransit.us/index.php?itemid=155.
After a notable high school basketball career, Santori joined the BSN's Capitanes de Arecibo, where he gained fame across Puerto Rico as one of the better known professional basketball players of the 1950s and 1960s. He represented Puerto Rico in various olympics
and was one of the players that helped Arecibo
to become the only team to go undefeated the entire season when the Capitanes won the 1959 BSN national title. He also played for the Rio Piedras squad, winning two scoring titles there, in 1963 and 1968. Santori was later chosen as the 30th best player in Puerto Rican basketball history by a BSN voting panel.
as television broadcasters during WAPA-TV
's transmissions of BSN games. He remained in that position until 1985, when he accepted a contract to coach the Gallitos de Isabela
team. Apart from his television job, he started writing a daily column (during the BSN season) for El Nuevo Dia
newspaper, where he predicted winners of BSN basketball games. In 1984, and taking into consideration his knowledge of the sport of tennis, WAPA-TV designed him as commentator of the Martina Navratilova-Gigi Fernández
tennis game, one of the most widely seen sports events in Puerto Rican television history. He also held a daily basketball column at WAPA-TV's news show, Noticentro 4, during the BSN season. His job at Noticentro 4, just like his job at El Nuevo Dia, was to predict winners of BSN basketball games, but he occasionally talked about other things, such as the time he predicted Héctor Camacho
would outpoint Edwin Rosario
in their boxing
fight, although Santori was a self declared non-boxing fan. Camacho did outpoint Rosario in their bout. He also had a five minute show named "Las guiritas de Fufi" ("Fufi's Lay-ups"), where he taught youngsters basketball fundamentals.
After leaving the Gallitos de Isabela, Santori was reinstated to WAPA-TV's basketball broadcast team. He left to coach the national basketball team for a short period of time. After his stint as the national team's coach was over, he predicted, in 1992, that Puerto Rico's team would beat the original Dream Team in Barcelona.
Santori was an active member of the Puerto Rico Chess Federation and became a relatively strong player in tournaments held in Puerto Rico. Santori is the father of María Eugenia Santori, who won a bronce medal in the Chess Olympyad representing the Puerto Rico National Chess Team.
In 2006, Santori was honored with an award recognizing his career as a basketball player and sportscaster.
, aiming at gaining a mostly symbolic but technically possible Puerto Rican citizenship
. Santori's request was denied, based on lack of subject-matter jurisdiction
. On June 28 of that year, an appeal from Santori's side was denied by the United States district court
for the district of Puerto Rico. Santori's request was rejected because U.S. laws specifically says that to renounce your citizenship you have to do it in a US consulate. Santori had done this through an affidavit in Lares, Puerto Rico.
Behind the litigation over Santori's nationality status lie some anomalies and peculiarities relating to matters of status in Puerto Rico: Under the Treaty of Paris under which the United States acquired sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Spanish nationals had a right of option. United States nationality (citizenship) is acquired by persons born in Puerto Rico by that Treaty and under statute, and not under the 14th Amendment (8 U.S.C. § 1406, 66 Stat. 237). Finally, U.S. citizens, born or naturalized in Puerto Rico and domiciled and resident there at the time of death, are not subject to U.S. estate tax on Puerto Rican assets: 26 U.S.C. §§ 2208, 2209; Rev. Rul. 74-25; TAM 7612220070A; General Counsel Memorandum 36944, Dec. 10, 1976.
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player, coach
Coach (sport)
In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...
and television sportscaster. He was also a physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, basketball and tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
instructor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
The University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez in Spanish , is a land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant state university located in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico...
for close to thirty years. Fufi Santori is of obvious Corsican-Puerto Rican descent which is common and well known on the island.
Biography
Fufi Santori, his brother Tito and the rest of his family moved to San JuanSan Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
at an early age. He grew up with pro-independence political ideas; his grand father Cayetano Coll y Cuchí
Cayetano Coll y Cuchí
Cayetano Coll y Cuchí was a politician, writer and an advocate of Puerto Rican Independence. In 1917, he became the first President of Puerto Rico House of Representatives after the island was ceded to the United States by Spain as a result of the Spanish-American War...
was Speaker of the House of Representatives and his grand uncle José Coll y Cuchí
José Coll y Cuchí
José Coll y Cuchi was a lawyer, writer and the founder of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was a member of a prominent Puerto Rican family of politicians, educators and writers See: "Notable family members" section .-Early years:Coll y Cuchi was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico...
was the founder of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded on September 17, 1922. Its main objective is to work for Puerto Rican Independence.In 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, felt that the Union Party was not doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rican independence and he...
. An avid sports fan, Santori was also a member of the Puertorrican Olympic Basketball Team that participated ein the 1960 Olympiad in Rome. He was a tennis player and coach. While still a teenager, in 1944, Santori and his brother Tito boarded what was Puerto Rico's only passenger train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
to attend a Boy Scouts Rally in Hatillo, Puerto Rico.
http://www.publictransit.us/index.php?itemid=155.
After a notable high school basketball career, Santori joined the BSN's Capitanes de Arecibo, where he gained fame across Puerto Rico as one of the better known professional basketball players of the 1950s and 1960s. He represented Puerto Rico in various olympics
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
and was one of the players that helped Arecibo
Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Arecibo is a municipality in the northern midwest coast of Puerto Rico and located by the Atlantic Ocean, north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta, and Florida. Arecibo is spread over 18 wards and Arecibo Pueblo...
to become the only team to go undefeated the entire season when the Capitanes won the 1959 BSN national title. He also played for the Rio Piedras squad, winning two scoring titles there, in 1963 and 1968. Santori was later chosen as the 30th best player in Puerto Rican basketball history by a BSN voting panel.
After basketball
Santori's popularity kept growing after he retired from the game. In 1982, he joined Manolo Rivera MoralesManolo Rivera Morales
Manuel Rivera Morales was a Puerto Rican sportscaster, radio announcer and marketing sales executive. Rivera Morales is considered by many to be the best sportscaster in Puerto Rican history...
as television broadcasters during WAPA-TV
WAPA-TV
WAPA-TV is an independent television station located in San Juan, Puerto Rico transmitting over digital channel 27, virtual channel 4. The station is owned by InterMedia Partners and is branded as WAPA Television....
's transmissions of BSN games. He remained in that position until 1985, when he accepted a contract to coach the Gallitos de Isabela
Gallitos de Isabela
The Gallitos de Isabela are a BSN basketball team from Isabela, Puerto Rico . They currently play at the Jose "Buga" Abreu Coliseum.-External links:* - Official site of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional ....
team. Apart from his television job, he started writing a daily column (during the BSN season) for El Nuevo Dia
El Nuevo Día
El Nuevo Día is a Puerto Rican newspaper based in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and distributed daily throughout Puerto Rico and some parts of the United States.- History :...
newspaper, where he predicted winners of BSN basketball games. In 1984, and taking into consideration his knowledge of the sport of tennis, WAPA-TV designed him as commentator of the Martina Navratilova-Gigi Fernández
Gigi Fernández
Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández is a former professional tennis player, the first female athlete from her native Puerto Rico to turn professional, the first Puerto Rican woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal and the first to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.Fernandez won 17 Grand...
tennis game, one of the most widely seen sports events in Puerto Rican television history. He also held a daily basketball column at WAPA-TV's news show, Noticentro 4, during the BSN season. His job at Noticentro 4, just like his job at El Nuevo Dia, was to predict winners of BSN basketball games, but he occasionally talked about other things, such as the time he predicted Héctor Camacho
Héctor Camacho
Héctor Camacho , nicknamed "Macho Camacho", is a Puerto Rican professional boxer. His son, Héctor Camacho Jr., is also a boxer.- Early life and amateur career :...
would outpoint Edwin Rosario
Edwin Rosario
Edwin "El Chapo" Rosario was a Puerto Rican boxer. He was the WBC world lightweight champion from 1983–84 and the WBA world champion in 1986–87 and again in 1989–90...
in their boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
fight, although Santori was a self declared non-boxing fan. Camacho did outpoint Rosario in their bout. He also had a five minute show named "Las guiritas de Fufi" ("Fufi's Lay-ups"), where he taught youngsters basketball fundamentals.
After leaving the Gallitos de Isabela, Santori was reinstated to WAPA-TV's basketball broadcast team. He left to coach the national basketball team for a short period of time. After his stint as the national team's coach was over, he predicted, in 1992, that Puerto Rico's team would beat the original Dream Team in Barcelona.
Santori was an active member of the Puerto Rico Chess Federation and became a relatively strong player in tournaments held in Puerto Rico. Santori is the father of María Eugenia Santori, who won a bronce medal in the Chess Olympyad representing the Puerto Rico National Chess Team.
In 2006, Santori was honored with an award recognizing his career as a basketball player and sportscaster.
Santori vs. United States of America
Fufi Santori tried, in 1994, to renounce to his United States citizenshipCitizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
, aiming at gaining a mostly symbolic but technically possible Puerto Rican citizenship
Puerto Rican citizenship
Puerto Rican citizenship was first legislated by the U.S. Congress in Article 7 of the Foraker Act of 1900 and later recognized by the Puerto Rican constitution...
. Santori's request was denied, based on lack of subject-matter jurisdiction
Subject-matter jurisdiction
Subject-matter jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear cases of a particular type or cases relating to a specific subject matter. For instance, bankruptcy court only has the authority to hear bankruptcy cases....
. On June 28 of that year, an appeal from Santori's side was denied by the United States district court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
for the district of Puerto Rico. Santori's request was rejected because U.S. laws specifically says that to renounce your citizenship you have to do it in a US consulate. Santori had done this through an affidavit in Lares, Puerto Rico.
Behind the litigation over Santori's nationality status lie some anomalies and peculiarities relating to matters of status in Puerto Rico: Under the Treaty of Paris under which the United States acquired sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Spanish nationals had a right of option. United States nationality (citizenship) is acquired by persons born in Puerto Rico by that Treaty and under statute, and not under the 14th Amendment (8 U.S.C. § 1406, 66 Stat. 237). Finally, U.S. citizens, born or naturalized in Puerto Rico and domiciled and resident there at the time of death, are not subject to U.S. estate tax on Puerto Rican assets: 26 U.S.C. §§ 2208, 2209; Rev. Rul. 74-25; TAM 7612220070A; General Counsel Memorandum 36944, Dec. 10, 1976.