The Mighty Trevino in his offices in Niagara Falls... He hit a grand slam for the city...

Over the years, Roger Trevino, the executive vice president of Niagara Falls Redevelopment, has had a number of surprising successes. From boxing events, to  business deals, to his support of various charities, which sometimes made a difference in their success. Trevino usually operates silently but effectively.

 But recent weeks have seen Trevino making front page headlines, for bringing in Nik Wallenda to make his historic walk across the falls.

“The man behind the falls walk,” trumpeted the Buffalo News headline in a front page Sunday story on Trevino’s role in getting Wallenda to the falls for his historic walk. The hometown Niagara Gazette bannered the headline, “Roger and Nik: How the wirewalker got his shot at walking over Niagara Falls.”

  For Trevino, who began with NFR in 1988, the Wallenda chapter is one that Trevino, who once worked as an agent for Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, can take pride in for years to come.

Thanks to Trevino’s initiative at a Florida convention of amusement park operators, Wallenda was enticed to try and live out his boyhood dream and walk across the falls.  A lot of people helped along the way, but Trevino deserves credit for getting the ball rolling and ushering it along every inch of the way, ultimately bringing an event to Niagara Falls that would put the city in the world spotlight for weeks leading up to the walk and for creating a big economic windfall for a desperate city looking for a boost.

 It may be months or even years before the full impact of Wallenda’s walk can be measured, but there’s no doubt that the summer of 2012 was a big one for the city thanks to Nik Wallenda and Roger Trevino.