About Joe Pete and the Scholarship Foundation
Joe Pete was born and raised in Ashtabula, Ohio, to his 100% Italian parents, Mariann and Joe Sr. He loved sports from the moment he started playing and religiously read the sports section of the newspaper from the time he was 8 years old. Joe married his long-time love, Pam, in 1993, and they had two daughters together, Abby and Julia. Family and sports were Joe’s whole world, making it his mission to design a career where he could use his love for sports to bring our community together.
When Joe worked at the local radio station broadcasting high school sports games, he was quick to build a strong following, with many listeners asking for Joe to have his own show. He then went on to work with ESPN to launch The Sports Report, talking about all things local sports and pop culture, which was broadcast three nights a week. The show quickly became a source of entertainment for the Ashtabula community, leading Joe to begin hosting live events to give both players and coaches more of a platform to talk about their achievements.
Joe felt very passionately about education and understood how difficult it could be to balance excelling both on the court and in the classroom, so he set out to reward those who did. He started hosting events around town with long-time advertising sponsors of his to establish and build a scholarship fund. Each year, the Joe Pete Scholarship Foundation Alumni Basketball Tournament would aim to raise as much money as possible to award a number of students a college scholarship for their exemplary performance.
With many recipients’ friends and family in attendance, it continued to grow each year, becoming an event the whole community would look forward to. Behind the scenes, Joe was battling health issues, and we sadly lost him in January of 2012. His legacy lives on through the foundation and media personalities like Sam Torres, who keep his same vision at the forefront by highlighting all the amazing achievements happening in our Ashtabula Sports Community. Thank you for celebrating Joe with us!
