Rockers remembers teammates fondly
Published 8:03 pm Wednesday, June 20, 2012
It’s been years since Pete Rockers was setting passing records for the Pacelli football team and when he looks back on it, it’s not the yards or even the games that he remembers.
It’s his teammates.
“I really enjoyed playing team sports and we had camaraderie,” Rockers said. “Even though we’re scattered all over the country, we still keep in touch through e-mail.”
Rockers, who graduated from Pacelli in 1977 and played football, basketball and baseball for the Shamrocks, will be inducted into the Pacelli Athletic Hall of Fame this Friday.
Rockers now lives in the Minnetonka area and runs a software company that he he started 20 years ago. Before moving to Minnetonka, Rockers lived in Los Angeles for 10 years and New Hampshire for six years.
While with the Shamrocks, Rockers played on three basketball teams that lost in the regional finals and he played in the state baseball tournament once.
“We had good teams, but we couldn’t quite get over the hump,” he said.
Rockers came from a big family and he actually played with his nephew, who was close to the same age as him, at Pacelli.
Now that he’s headed to the hall of fame, Rocker is mostly appreciative of the guys he played sports with.
“It’s a nice honor,” Rockers said. “It’s not something I was striving for and I think it’s a recognition of the caliber of athletes I played with. I was pretty lucky to have some pretty good athletes around me.”
Rockers went on to play quarterback at St. John’s University for two years and he played baseball in college as well.