Agganis Shone Brilliantly
in World of Sports
By Steve Krause, The Daily Item of Lynn, Wednesday,
May 18, 2005
If you go on the internet and Google "Greek
Tragedy," you'll find classic definitions and proper formats. But what you
won't find is one of the single biggest examples of the ultimate "Greek
Tragedy."
His name was Arisotle George Agganis, and he was born in a second-story flat on
Waterhill Street on April 20, 1929 - the seventh and youngest child of George
and Georgia Agganis. As a child, his mother called him "Ari," and
around the old neighborhood where he grew up, "Ari" quickly became
"Harry."
By the time he died, tragically young, on June 27, 1955, he was simply
"Harry." Nobody -- at least in Lynn and surrounding areas - had to say
"Agganis."
Harry Agganis was a phenom from an early age, a three-sport athlete (football,
basketball and baseball) at Lynn Classical, and, later, Boston University.
Wherever he went, he put his school on the map. His legacy is such that at the
end of the 20th century, a panel of local sports experts - representing the
entire North Shore area -- picked him as the best local athlete of all time. At
BU, he has an arena named after him - a state-of-the-art facility that is the
envy of the college hockey universe.
The foundation that bears his name has awarded more than $1 million in
scholarships to deserving scholar/athletes and will mark its 50th anniversary
Thursday, June 2, with a gala fundraising event at the Agganis Arena.
He's had a stadium named for him at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he
served in the U.S. Marines during the Korean conflict (interrupting his BU
career), and the entire Manning Bowl/Fraser Field complex named for him in Lynn. His
statue stands in the foyer of the Agganis Arena, and a portrait of him hangs in
the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Harry packed a lot of living in his 26 years.
The legacy began at Lynn Classical, where he routinely filled Manning Bowl to
capacity and even had some of his games televised. In three seasons, the
southpaw quarterback, who could also run like the wind, led Bill Joyce's
Classical teams to a 30-4-1 record. He completed 326 passes for 4,149 yards,
threw for 48 touchdowns, scored 24 more, and kicked 39 extra points.
Harry got around, too. He played football at the Orange Bowl in Miami and
baseball at the Polo Grounds in New York, Wrigley Field in Chicago and both
Fenway Park and Braves Field. All before graduating from high school.
The world first started taking notice when he was a junior and threw 29
touchdown passes to lead Classical to an 11-0-1 season and a mythical national
title.
"That young man could step into any college backfield right now," said
Tennessee coach Bob Neyland.
A year later, none other than Notre Dame's Frank Leahy called him "the
finest prospect I've ever seen."
Heavily recruited (it is said that 75 colleges sought his services), he settled
on BU because he didn't want to leave his widowed mother alone. According to a
profile in Sports Magazine in 1950 by writer Al Hirschberg, Harry didn't want to
go all over the country to seek his fame. He wanted to live where he grew up.
BU coach Aldo "Buff" Donelli recalled in the same article that
he didn't want to put pressure on Agganis as a freshman, so he purposely steered
writers who covered the team away from him. Then, once he saw how Agganis deftly
handled the attention, he changed his tune.
"That kid," Donelli said, "is the best 18-year-old football
player I've ever seen."
There were stories circulating at the time that Agganis chose BU because the
Terriers played their home games at Fenway Park, and that Tom Yawkey - owner of
the Red Sox - paid his way. But that wasn't true, Agganis said. He simply liked
the school, and liked Donelli.
The Red Sox would play a role in Agganis' future, but for the moment, it
was all BU, where he was a legitimate triple threat: He could pass, run and
kick. Donelli said that if Agganis were a halfback, he'd be the best in the
country. He played ironman football in those days, and - Donelli said - was as
dangerous as they came after an interception.
As a punter, he once boomed one 80 yards, according to an article in a football
scouting magazine.
Word got out - so much so that 20,000 fans showed up in Worcester for a
preseason game between Holy Cross and BU. He was being compared to some of the
legends of his era - Sid Luckman, Sammy Baugh and Frankie Albert - while he was
a freshman.
He took off as a sophomore, leading the Terriers to six straight
season-opening wins before they lost a 14-13 heartbreaker to Maryland. But
before the season ended, he set three major school records: most touchdown
passes in a game (4) most TD passes in a season (15) and punting average (46.5).
Agganis was also popular with the fans, with six official fan clubs at BU. And
he needed help answering all his fan mail.
Agganis sat out the 1950 season - or, rather, spent it in the Marines. He was
back for the '51 opener, and with only one hour of practice, he threw two
touchdown passes and scored another in a win over William and Mary.
Even though he was only a junior at the time (he lost a year in the service), he
was the No. 1 draft choice of the Cleveland Browns, and coach Paul Brown called
him "the man who will succeed Otto Graham."
He chose to stay at BU, however, and that just might have been an ominous
portent into his future. In a game against Maryland in 1952, he took a terrible
beating in a loss to Maryland - suffering a serious rib injury in the process.
Agganis turned down a $50,000 offer from the Browns and signed for less money to
play for the Red Sox. After a season with the team's Triple-A franchise in
Louisville, he made it to the big leagues. In his rookie season, 1954, he hit 11
homers - eight of them at Fenway Park. A year later, he was batting .313 in
mid-May when he developed viral pneumonia. He was back with the team 10 days
later, but suffered a relapse. He appeared to be recovering, but on June 27, he
suffered a pulmonary embolism at Sancta Maria Hospital in Cambridge, and died.
His death stunned the city and his fans. His wake at St. George's Greek Orthodox
Church drew between 20,000 and 30,000 mourners, and his funeral spilled over
into an adjacent hall. More than 20,000 people - including Lynn's Frank Carey
(who was 12 years old at the time) -- filled the streets along the processional
route to Pine Grove Cemetery.