Julio Piazza a 1968 graduate, became the premier PSAL distance runner of the late 1960s, winning three city championships during his senior year and producing record-setting performances in cross-country and the mile. His winning time of 12:45 for the 2.5-mile Van Cortlandt Park course set a PSAL meet record. His 4:17.6 victory in the Indoor mile set a flat-floor New York State record and stood as the third-best scholastic time in the nation at the time. And his 4:15.8 victory in the Outdoor mile was itself a PSAL record — a rare sweep of dominance across cross country, indoor, and outdoor competition.

At the Penn Relays his senior year, Julio anchored Tech's Distance Medley Relay to a Championship of America victory, with the team's time of 10:09.0 setting a New York State record and standing as the second-fastest scholastic performance in the country to that date and is still a competitive against today's times.

After Tech, Julio continued his running career at the University of Pennsylvania, then competed internationally as a member of the Philadelphia Pioneers. Later he went on to build a distinguished coaching career of his own, first as an assistant women's coach at Penn and later as head coach at Lafayette College. He was named Patriot League Coach of the Year seven times.

Julio's connection to Brooklyn Tech never faded. It was his relationship with Coach Lenny Malech that helped pave the way for Tech standout Kay Moore-Benjamin to join Penn's first women's track recruiting class — one more example of a Tech runner paying his own success forward to the generation that followed.