Anyone who attended last Saturday’s sold-out enshrinement of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2012 would tell you there’s nothing quite like it.
Springfield athletic director Mike Martin, shown with Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, center, and former Springfield school superintendent Alan J. Ingram, left, was the leading advocate for establishment of a public school hall of fame.In the spring of 2007, Mike Martin decided it was high time to implement a plan that he had been thinking about for some time.
Yes, the director of athletics for Springfield’s public schools wanted a Hall of Fame, much like the one which had been started at his old school, Cathedral, some years earlier.
He got his wish. By September of 2007, Martin’s Hall of Fame committee had its first class ready for induction. The ceremony took place on the Saturday before Thanksgiving – and that format has stayed in place ever since.
No doubt about it, Martin’s idea was as good as it gets. Anyone who attended last Saturday’s sold-out enshrinement of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2012 would tell you there’s nothing quite like it.
Families and friends gathered in the Central High School gym to watch their favorites stride to the podium and receive a beautiful plaque. The warm reception that the enshrinees received proved once again the long-standing value of this event.
The ceremony is made all the better by good food and good music –in this case, a wondrous performance by the 100-piece High School of Science & Technology jazz band.
In recent years, Chicopee, Monson, Ludlow, Palmer, Ware, Holyoke Catholic and Amherst Regional also have started Halls of Fame.
More to come? Maybe West Springfield and Holyoke? We shall see.
BUSY BOXERS: Josh Lopez of South Hadley and the University of Massachusetts, the defending national intercollegiate lightweight champion, scored a knockout at one minute of the second round against Taylor Yancey of the University of Nevada in a Monday night bout at the New York Athletic Club.
Coach Rocky Snow will have his UMass team back in the ring Dec. 1 at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., for bouts against Army and the Coast Guard Academy.
The UMass team also will be part of a special boxing card set for Dec. 8 at the Holyoke Boys Club.
74 AND COUNTING: Through good times and bad, the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America has maintained its awards dinner.
The 74th will take place Jan. 24 at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston.
Among the award winners is third baseman Will Middlebrooks, who has been selected as Red Sox rookie of the year. A wrist injury curtailed his season, in which he hit .288 with 15 homers and 54 RBI. The Red Sox went 41-29 in the 70 games he started.
For dinner tickets, at $175, send a check made out to The Sports Museum, care of Rusty Sullivan, The Sports Museum, 100 Legends Way, Boston MA 02114.
Tickets also can be ordered online at The Sports Museum website,
www.sportsmuseum.org
BEST BET for the weekend: Shackleford, in the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.