Football has seen its share of offensive players from the great
run in the early 1990’s selected to the Hall of Fame. Now the
defensive side of the ball has an inductee in Peter
Perivolarakis.
Perivolarakis wasted no time in making his presence felt on the
defensive line. The freshman registered 30 tackles including 2.5
sacks on a team that finished 8-2 with wins over RPI, Amherst, and
Bowdoin. The following season, he was third on the team in tackles
(61) and topped the squad with seven sacks for 43 yards. He proved
his versatility by recovering a fumble and deflecting three passes
and the Engineers posted an undefeated season (8-0-1).
He emerged as a legitimate superstar during his junior campaign
in 1991. He was selected first team All-New England after tallying
91 tackles and notching a jaw-dropping 12 sacks for 65 yards. He
tacked on seven additional tackles for loss, recovered two fumbles,
and recorded a safety as the Crimson and Gray finished 7-3.
“Peter was every opposing coach’s nightmare,”
says head coach Jack Siedlecki. “He was unblockable. His
quickness off the ball disrupted opposing offenses, week in and
week out. Rarely is an interior defensive lineman as influential in
the outcome of games as Peter was.”
Perivolarakis served as team captain as a senior during the
dream season of 1992 that saw WPI go 9-1 in the regular season,
capture the inaugural Freedom Football Conference championship and
become the only team in school history to participate in the NCAA
Championships. He was a first-team FFC all-conference selection and
a repeat first-team All-New England performer. He collected a
career-best 94 tackles to go along with nine sacks (40 yards) and
an additional 9 tackles-for-loss. He also tallied 6 pass
deflections, 3 blocked kicks with a forced and recovered a
fumble.
“In the 13 years I had the pleasure of playing
football growing up, never have I had the pleasure of playing or
witnessing such a dominant defensive force such as Pete
Perivolarakis,” says Hall of Fame teammate Jason Wooley.
“Pete’s passion, drive and commitment to dominating the
line of scrimmage were unrelenting and unparalleled. It’s not
the norm that the offense would come off the field and talk over
adjustments from the previous possession as quickly as possible
just so we could all get to witness what Pete was going to do
next.”
A native of Framingham, Mass., Peter graduated in 1993 with a
degree in mechanical engineering. Since then he was a mechanical
engineer at General Dynamics and a manager of a CAE consulting firm
before joining General Electric in 2006, where he is the manager of
structural analysis. Peter and his wife, Eleni, live in Swampscott,
Mass.
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