Gemignani: the Michael Jordan of Pizza Tossing
Preparing to give a speech at the annual International Pizza Expo & Conference in Las Vegas last week, Tony Gemignani looked around as he pondered the ultimate question: Are pizza-throwers athletes?
“I know if I asked about a hundred guys standing behind me right now, they’d all say yes,” he responded.
And so has the Castro Valley Sports Hall of Fame selection committee, which has selected the multiple world champion and Guiness World Record-holder to be part of its Class of 2024.
“You are sweating afterward,” Gemignani noted, siding with the majority on the athlete issue.
He’s called the Michael Jordan of Pizza-Tossing, the LeBron James of Pizza-Making … all because, as a Fremont teen-ager, he quit his job at McDonald’s to join his older brother Frank in his new endeavor: Pyzano’s Pizzeria in Castro Valley.
“I grew up on a farm,” Gemignani, now 50, said of his youth in Fremont after having been born in Alameda. “We grew apricots, cherries, oranges, basil, tomatoes … I love food. Food has always been a big part of my life.
“When I was graduating (from Washington High in 1991), my brother found Castro Valley. He liked the city, and he thought it would be a good place to put a pizzeria. I went to work for him. I fell in love with it.”
Gemignani also fell in love with Castro Valley. He moved into town in 1997 and immediately started hiring high school students to work for him.
“Pyzano’s was always that restaurant that you started out at for your first job,” he proudly states. “It was a great job to start at – learn customer service and discipline. We had so many great employees. It was awesome.”
Gemignani now lives in San Francisco, but soon will open a new pizza restaurant in the Castro Valley Marketplace that will be called Slice House by Tony Gemignani. He plans to bring his whole Harlem Globetrotters-style show with him.
That includes perhaps his greatest athletic achievement – once having rolled 20 ounces of dough over the back of his shoulders a total of 37 times in 30 seconds. The feat was accomplished with the Guiness people in attendance at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.
Perhaps inspired by Gemignani, Shaquille O’Neal has gotten into the pizza-flipping business as the new spokesperson for rival Papa John’s. Gemignani gushes at Shaq’s performance on the popular TV commercial.
“I don’t know, Shaq is pretty talented,” Gemignani responded when asked if he thought the giant-sized NBA Hall of Famer's successful flip might have taken several takes. “His hands are so big …”
So far, there’s been no talk of a Hall of Fame showdown on Castro Valley Blvd., but that doesn’t mean Gemignani will be doing all the pizza-tossing at his new place. Another of his world records is having led 263 people in simultaneous 12-inch pizza-tossing at his Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco.
Gemignani credits his background in sports as helping him become a pizza champion. “My dad was a soccer coach,” he recalled. “You practice, practice, practice and get as good as you can. It’s the same in the world of pizza.”
Gemignani could have a protege in the pipeline in 9-year-old son Giovanni. While dad might have to wrestle son away from more traditional sports like soccer, kung fu, basketball and flag football, Gemignani is proud to boast: “He loves (pizza). He comes up on stage with me (at conventions). He’s even on commercials with me.”
Community gatherings and youth involvement have played a big role in Gemignani’s dough-like rise to fame.
“Halloween was always special – tossing pizzas with the kids,” he remembered of his Pyzano’s Pizzeria days. “We would have contests. Seeing all the kids grow up was really nice.”
This is the last in a series of 16 articles profiling the 2024 inductees into the Castro Valley Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame ceremonies and banquet will be held Sunday, April 21, at Redwood Canyon Golf Course. For tickets, go to castrovalleysportsfoundation.org and click on “Events.”