Petros Spanakos

​Petros Spanakos

Olympian | Educator

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Personal History

Petros M. Spanakos grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn. He was constantly threatened by local bullies, street-fighting being the ethos of the community. In order to survive, Petros became a first-class street fighter and then a world-class amateur boxing superstar. He was raised in a pride of seven lions on those mean streets. His hard-working immigrant parents were from Mani, Greece, descendants of the famous Spartan warriors of ancient times. He and his twin brother attended Fort Hamilton High School from 1952-1956. They were known as the “Greeks”, because at that time, the school was primarily Scandinavian. Dr. Michael Sachey, a Fort Hamilton High School physical education teacher, became his mentor. In 1956, Petros was elected as the Senior Class President.

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Upon graduating from Fort Hamilton High School, he received many boxing scholarships and graduated from Albertson College of Idaho in 1960. In 1965, he was awarded his Juris Doctorate from New York Law School. In 1959, he and his twin brother were inducted into the Fort Hamilton High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Years later, Petros and his brother were inducted into the Albertson College Hall of Fame and the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA).

Petros boxed mostly as a bantam weight, 118 pounds, from 1952-64. He was a Bronze Medal winner at the 1959 Pan American Games. Cassius Clay, soon to be Mohammed Ali, was an alternate on the team. Petros captured over 30 championships including 10 Golden Gloves titles in his boxing Odyssey. He competed in the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympic trials and he fought over 200 fights leaving a bloody trail in over 40 cities.

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Petros worked as a NYC Board of Education teacher and drug abuse counselor for thirty years until he retired in 1991. He taught business administration in a number of colleges in the New York area and was the Director of the Wild Cat High School, a Second Opportunity School for troubled youth in the Bronx.

He and his wife Niki raised their children in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. Their children Mike, Ali and Tony did their undergraduate work at Columbia, Yale and Princeton Universities, respectively. One holds a Juris Doctorate, in the footsteps of his father, and the other two have Ph.Ds. The latest addition to the family is Petros’ ten month old grandson, Brandon.