Daniel Luciano, a prominent figure in Bergen County high school athletics, passed away at 101.

Luciano was a World War II veteran, coach, and athletic director who championed girls’ sports and golf.

The Bergen County Golf Championship was renamed for Luciano in 1984.

Daniel Anthony Luciano, the namesake of Bergen County’s individual golf championship and one of the region’s most influential high school coaches and athletic directors, died on May 18 at 101.

A World War II submariner and longtime Northern Valley Regional High School leader, Luciano helped shape the landscape of high school athletics in Bergen County. Across a 34-year career, he pushed for expanded opportunities for girls in sports, introduced safety equipment for athletes and built winning programs on the football field and golf course.

“He was a titan in high school golf,” said Bergen Catholic’s Jim Jacobsen, who coached Luciano’s grandson, Martin Catalioto, and recently retired after 43 seasons and a New Jersey record 1,239 wins. “He put golf on the map in Bergen County. He made sure there was a golf tournament for all the kids to participate. He also got all-county golf selections in The Record. He was quite a man.”

Luciano began his coaching career at Lodi High School. He started there as junior varsity coach in 1950 before being named head football coach the following July by athletic director Stan Piela, who had coached him at Bergen Junior College. In the offseason, he coached baseball at Wood-Ridge.

“Danny Luciano is a jack of all trades,” Joe Lovas wrote for The Record in June 1972. “He’s small in stature but packs a lot of energy in his 5-foot, 7-inch frame. And when Luciano does anything, he’s always certain to make it a No. 1 promotion.”

Born Sept. 9, 1923, in Lodi, Luciano was a standout athlete at Lodi High School, lettering in football, wrestling and baseball before graduating in 1942. He earned Diamond Gloves and Golden Gloves boxing titles in 1939 and went on to play football and baseball at Bergen Junior College, where he received the Outstanding Athlete Award.

In May 1943, Luciano was drafted into the U.S. Navy along with dozens of other, mostly Army-bound men from Garfield, Lodi, Little Ferry and Hasbrouck Heights, according to The Record’s archives. He served as a sonar and radio operator aboard the USS Sea Cat, a submarine in the Pacific, before being discharged as a radioman at Mare Island, California, in March 1946.

After the war, he resumed his studies, receiving a bachelor’s degree from Springfield College and later a master’s degree from Seton Hall University in 1956, The Paterson Evening News reported in June 1956. His wife, Jean Louise Porter of Bergenfield, was a Syracuse University graduate who worked in administration for New York City’s Grand Union Company when the two married in June 1951 at Tenafly Methodist Church, The Herald-News reported.

Luciano made his debut as the head football coach for Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest in September 1958 and quickly made his mark with a historic 25-19 upset of Pascack Valley. The team had lost 62-0 in their matchup just one year earlier.

In 1962, Luciano joined the newly opened Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan, where he became the school’s first athletic director and chaired the physical education department. He held the director’s role for 14 years.

While there, Luciano made his name coaching golf, with his teams winning 100 matches before losing 13. Over 23 seasons, he compiled a record of 267-58 and retired as the winningest high school golf coach in Bergen County history after a 1984 season that saw his team go 18-1 in the Northern Bergen Interscholastic League’s second division.

His teams won 10 league titles, five Bergen County championships and two New Jersey State District 1 titles, according to The Record archives. Members of the Bergen County Coaches Association picked Luciano as the first Coach of the Year in golf in 1972, when he organized the All-County Golf Selection Committee. He received Coach of the Year honors again in 1977 and 1984.

Outside of Old Tappan, Luciano was a leading organizer in county athletics. In 1971, he persuaded Edgewood Country Club to help revive the Bergen County Scholastic Golf Tournament. He continued directing the tournament annually and in 1977 called it “the greatest thrill I’ve ever had,” The Record reported. A class golfer himself, Luciano won the 1968 Bergen County Coaches Association tournament at River Vale Country Club with a round of 78.

“Danny learned the game of golf at an early age,” Lovas wrote in 1972. “He began to caddie when he was nine at Orchard Hills, Saddle River and Arcola. He plays to a 10 handicap today, scoring in the high 70s or low 80s. And, for a small guy, he hits ‘em long off the tee.”

In 1984, the Bergen County Golf Championship was renamed the Bergen County Dan Luciano Individual Championship in his honor. In local golf circles, it is known simply as the “Bergen Luciano.”

Luciano’s legacy nonetheless went beyond golf. He also officiated basketball and track, coached wrestling, bowling and baseball, and was a member of the Bergen County Coaches Association, the Bergen County Directors of Athletics Association and the North Bergen Interscholastic League, where he served as secretary-treasurer. He was president of the Bergen County Interscholastic Golf League in 1967, helped organize the LPGA Chrysler Plymouth Classic in conjunction with the Youth Satellite Golf Tour and advocated for girls’ interscholastic athletics in Bergen County.

He was inducted into the New Jersey State Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1974, received the New Jersey Director of Athletics Award in 1976 and was given the YMCA of Bergen County Service to Youth Award in 1981. He was also inducted into the Lodi High School Hall of Fame and the Northern Valley Old Tappan Hall of Fame in 1994. That same year, he was honored by the Bergen County Board of Freeholders, now called commissioners.

After he retired, Luciano and his wife moved to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. In 2022, the National World War II Museum recognized him for his service, and his name is engraved on the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Luciano is survived by his sister, Ann Longo of Lodi; daughters Debra Catalioto-Buzzelli, Sandra Schrettner and Amy Luciano-Heinrich; and grandchildren Martin Catalioto, Kimberly Schrettner and Daniella Castillo.

Staff Writer Greg Mattura contributed to this story.