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By Ron P. Coderre
The Tourtellotte Memorial High School Athletic Hall of Fame, established in 2008, released through an e-mail from the Hall’s curator Joseph Lindley, the names of inductees in the Class of 2013. The group includes four prominent athletes and two championship teams.
The newest class, which includes Cindy Laliberte ’74, Bill Pedersen ’68, Maurice Negip ’43 and Greg Guillot ’88 and members of the 1987 and 1988 Cross Country Championship teams and the 1995 State record setting 4 x400 relay team, will be formally inducted in a ceremony at the Thompson Public School Auditorium on Saturday, June 22 at 2 p.m. The program is free and open to the public.
The HOF was created to honor the long and proud tradition of outstanding teams and athletes who have graced the athletic fields and courts of the Tigers over the years. The small high school, which was donated as a gift to the town by Dr. Jacob and Harriet Tourtellotte in 1909, has more State Championship titles than any other school in northeastern Connecticut.
The winning tradition dates back almost 100 years to 1927 when Tourtellotte captured its first State title in boys’ basketball. The team included Jim Canty, who later became a legendary basketball and baseball coach at his alma mater, George W. St. Marie, who carved a career as Director of Athletics for 41 years at Putnam High School as well as producing numerous All-State runners in cross country and track, and West Thompson’s Dan Chubbuck, who remains legendary at UConn for his heroics in football, basketball, baseball and track.
Since its inception the Hall has also inducted such notables as George “The Jet” Dargati, who is in the New England Basketball Hall of Fame and who holds scoring records at Eastern Connecticut State University, Brian Murphy, who was a minor league all star pitcher in the New York Yankee system following his graduation from ECSU and Alan Leboeuf who is currently a minor league coach with the Milwaukee Brewers following many years as a player and coach in the Philadelphia Phillies system. The members of this year’s class have outstanding credentials. Laliberte was a member of the World Champion All American Red Heads a touring professional basketball team. Pederson went on to a four-year basketball career at Assumption College where he was part of the team that gained the nation’s Number 1 ranking in the NCAA Div. II in 1972. Negip, who had his high school career cut short when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II, never had the opportunity to realize his full potential as an athlete. In 1990, at age 90, he was awarded his high school diploma in an emotional ceremony in front of 600 people. Guillot led the 1987 basketball team to an improbable State Championship. He ended his career with 1,247 points, fourth overall in the school’s history. The 1995 – 4x400 relay team was composed of Melissa Marcucci, Jennifer Blumie, Erin Raftery and Angela Girardin. They broke a 15-year old state record with a time of 4:06.76. The 1987 and 1988 cross country teams under the direction of coach Norman “Barney” Seney posted a combined 48-1-2 record.
The Athletic Hall of Fame committee is comprised of alumni volunteers Jim Naum ’50, Paul Dery ’70, John “Yosh” Lesniewski ’87, Bill Pedersen ’68, Deb Spinelli, TMHS Director of Athletics, and Joe Lindley ’74.