This is part of a series on the Class of 2021 of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony is Oct. 13 at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center. For tickets, visit gbshof.com.
Memories and photos may fade, but 7-foot bronze statues stand the test of time.
Ron Moscati’s legacy will endure as well, as the decorated photojournalist, Pulitzer finalist and Niagara Falls native is enshrined Wednesday in the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, etching his name alongside the many Western New York legends he chronicled over four decades with The Buffalo News and Courier-Express.
Moscati’s work is a familiar sight to Buffalo sports fans of all ages, as his iconic heads-on image of Sabres greats Gilbert Perrault, Rick Martin and Renè Robert skating side-by-side in transition served as the basis for the French Connection statue in Alumni Plaza outside KeyBank Center. The photo, captured during Game 1 of the 1975 Prince of Wales Final against Montreal, was a feat for the time period, the 89-year-old explained.
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The French Connection statue honors the greatest line in Buffalo Sabres history. Located outside of KeyBank Center, it is based on a photo by former Buffalo News Photographer Ron Moscati. (John Hickey/Buffalo News)
“I had them all in my camera and I said, ‘Wow, I got all three! And they’re all in action! Their bodies are showing the action! They’re flying!’” Moscati said. “And I thought, ‘Somebody gave me that picture. You don’t just luck into it.’ That was a great, great moment. I knew it as soon as I took it.”
In an age of flashbulbs and film, there wasn’t another shot quite like it.
“Nobody had that picture,” Moscati said. “I watched and watched and watched for something that would be those three guys, who are faster than hell, and together, to be in rhythm. It was a beautiful picture. And then to top it off was the Montreal Canadien who was dragging up behind all of them.”
Moscati had honed his craft for 20 years to that point.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism photography from Kent State in 1954, a master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse in 1956 and began his career on the staff of his hometown Niagara Gazette. A year later, he joined the Courier-Express, where he remained until the publication closed in 1982. He continued for more than a decade with The News before retiring in 1994.
Moscati also served as the team photographer for the Sabres and Bisons.
Some of his most memorable images help tell the stories of O.J. Simpson breaking Jim Brown’s single-season NFL rushing record, the Sabres’ infamous fog game, the Miracle on Ice, the Bills’ four consecutive Super Bowl appearances and a young Tiger Woods at the Porter Cup in 1994.
“I was lucky enough to be at a lot of events where there were big stories coming out of it,” Moscati said. “And I was really good at getting in the right place at the right time. That’s the other part of it that was hard to do.”
Moscati won more than 30 awards for his work, including the Associated Press’ Bernard J. Kolenberg Award for excellence in news photography in New York State.
Moscati was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Spot News Photography in 1970, for a haunting image of a Buffalo firefighter trying to revive an infant he saved from a burning building, alongside the child’s father, which ran on the front page of the Courier-Express. The infant later died.
“As you probably can tell, I cry very easily,” Moscati said, recounting the tragedy. “And there were so many things that brought tears to me. It’s such a sad situation sometimes. A lot of (news) ends up like that. It’s the business.”
True stories often have difficult endings.
But the best are remembered forever.
