Tag Archives: Athletic Hall of Fame 2014

Athletic Hall of Fame 2014: Hanson Acceptance Speech

Editor’s note: Charles Lindberg Hanson ’48 was inducted into the Williston Northampton Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 7, 2014 during Reunion weekend. Classmate Stanley Gedney ’48 gave the following acceptance speech during the ceremony.

Extraordinary Athlete, Tough Competitor, Exceptional Friend

Charles Lindberg Hanson was born on the same day that Charles Lindberg touched down in France after making his historic trans-Atlantic solo flight. His parents were so impressed, they named their son after the international hero.

Although Lindy Hanson did not achieve the notoriety of his namesake, he did achieve athletic prominence at Abington High School (MA), Williston Academy, and, later, Boston University. At Abington, Lindy was one of the few football players to gain unanimous All-Scholastic honors, as well as honors in baseball and basketball.

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Athletic Hall of Fame 2014 Intro: Paul Doty ’64

Editor’s note: Paul Doty ’64 was inducted into the Williston Northampton Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 7, 2014 during Reunion weekend. Frank Dorsey gave the following introduction during the ceremony.

Paul DotyEntry into any of America’s several hundred Halls of Fame by anyone is an occasion for nostalgia, reminiscence, and probably some history lessons. Some historical smells from 1964, with which most in this room are not familiar, came to my mind while planning what to say today to introduce Paul Doty:

  • chlorine from the swimming pool where Paul was a prep school All-American diver,
  • the reek of epoxy in our Ford Hall apartment from fiber glassing broken wooden sticks,
  • the smells of leather, gut and linseed oil at Bacharach-Raisin sporting goods store in Baltimore where we bought what are now antique lacrosse sticks, made by native Americans, the design little changed from those used by those who developed the game of lacrosse,
  • the almost intoxicating smell of the A.B. Dick ditto machine in the faculty room in the basement of the School House

The ditto machine, long since supplanted by, in turn, mimeograph, Xerox, laser printers and ink jets was used to generate quizzes and, in my first year at Williston, a one page workout sheet for the lacrosse team. It included suggested exercises, recommended running and an exhortation to the players to work on throwing and catching with their “off” hand. The result of this exercise, running and practice was the naïve hope on the part of this then young coach that the Williston lacrosse team would become “ambidextrous supermen.” I’ll say more on that later after summarizing Paul’s athletic career.

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Athletic Hall of Fame Intro: Charles Lindbergh “Lindy” Hanson ‘48

Editor’s note: Charles Lindberg “Lindy” Hanson ’48 was inducted into the Williston Northampton Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 7, 2014 during Reunion weekend.  Athletic Director Mark Conroy gave the following introduction during the ceremony.

Charles Lindbergh HansonIt is my great pleasure to introduce Charles Lindbergh “Lindy” Hanson as an inductee into Williston’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

It was during my first year at Williston in 2000 when I first became familiar with the name Lindy Hanson. A ceremony that included past classmates, teammates, and family members took place in his honor on the “other side of the bridge” when a plaque was erected in his memory next to Sawyer Field. I remember thinking at that time that this must not only be a special athlete but a special person for folks to return to Williston to honor him 52 years after his graduation!

While Lindy was undoubtedly one of the finest athletes in our school’s history, I would soon learn that he was also one of our most beloved. Lindy graduated from Abington High School in eastern Massachusetts in 1945 where he was an All Scholastic athlete in football, basketball, and baseball. Following his graduation, he served his country in the US Navy during World War II before arriving at Williston Academy in the fall of 1946.

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Athletic Hall of Fame 2014 Intro: Joseph Lynch 1910

Editor’s note: Joseph Lynch 1910 was inducted into the Williston Northampton Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 7, 2014 during Reunion weekend.  Archivist Rick Teller ’70 gave the following introduction during the ceremony.

Joseph LynchI’m here to present Joseph Lynch, Williston Seminary class of 1910, for the Athletic Hall of Fame. Joe was an Irish kid from Holyoke, who attended Holyoke High School before enrolling in the Middle Class — what we would now call the 10th grade — at Williston. Other than that, we don’t know much about him. I’d like to say that he presented the prep school ideal of the scholar-athlete, but I’m afraid that his grades don’t bear that out. The archives actually have a paper that he wrote, about the financier Edward Harriman, that is reasonably literate and shows some insight. Other than that, there’s not much. His 1910 classmates elected him “Best Athlete,” as well as “Merriest,” “Biggest Rough-Houser,” and “Biggest Bluffer.” His yearbook notes that he was “a lover of nature,” and a member of the F. C. Fraternity, about which we know little, and something called the Vigilance Committee, about which our ignorance is probably a blessing.

Joseph Lynch excelled in sports. He played right guard on an intramural football team, but he was in his element in baseball and basketball. Joe was the first baseman on the Williston Nine for three reasonably successful years — although interestingly, Holy Cross turned him into a pitcher. And there is a suggestion that he struck out more often than his friends and teammates might have liked.

But in basketball, Joe Lynch was unstoppable. Standing six-foot-one, towering over his teammates in an era when kids were simply shorter than today, he was an ideal center. His long arms and quick feet made him a defensive monster. And he was a scoring machine. Over his career, he scored 394 points in 28 games. Before you exclaim, “but that’s nothing!”, remember that the game of basketball, invented only 17 years before Lynch arrived at Williston, was very different. Dribbling, for example, was rare; players moved the ball primarily by passing. Players thus tended to spread out more, playing what we would now call zones. Most shots came from a distance, so scores were lower — and of course, the three-point shot hadn’t even been dreamt of. Foul shots were rare, and the free-throw line was 20 feet from the basket. Even the metal hoop and net, which replaced a bottomless peach basket, had been introduced only as recently as 1906.

So let’s look again at Joe Lynch’s numbers. In 1908, his sophomore year, he scored 132 points. All of his opponents together scored 189.

In 1909, the totals were Lynch, 152; every opposing player, 156. Joe must have refined his defensive game.

In 1910, it was Lynch 110, everyone else 115. And those 1909 and 1910 teams, which he captained, went undefeated. His total 394 points represented roughly one-third of the Williston teams’ total scoring. MVP? Oh, yes.

Joseph Lynch left Holy Cross after his sophomore year to help manage his father’s construction and brickmaking company. He served overseas in World War 1, then returned to his native Holyoke, where he was a prominent businessman, community leader, and golfer. He died in 1947.

Since we were unable to identify any surviving descendants, I invite Head of School Robert Hill to accept this citation inducting Joseph Edward Lynch, class of 1910, into the Williston Northampton Athletic Hall of Fame.

Athletic Hall of Fame 2014 Intro: 1973 Boys Swimming Team

Editor’s note: The 1973 Boys Swimming Team was inducted into the Williston Northampton Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 7, 2014 during Reunion weekend.  Coach Duff Tyler ’63 gave the following introduction during the ceremony.

Boys Swimming 1974Thank you, Jeff, and as coach of this ’73 team I am honored and pleased to be able to be here today. Before I begin the introductions, I would like to tell why they are deserving of this honor. Of course the 12-0 duel meet record tells one story, but who they beat tells the real story: Beating Andover, Exeter, Hotchkiss, Mt. Hermon, and super rival Deerfield, and along the way beating West Point plebes, Coast Guard cadets, and freshmen teams—Dartmouth, Harvard, Williams—and a victory over our nemesis Yale!

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