At halftime of tomorrow’s Homecoming football game, �ֲ���ý will retire the No. 11 baseball jersey worn by William “Chick” Leahey ’52 during his 36 years as head coach.

A coaching legend, Leahey and his teams won 300 games from 1955 to 1990. Upon his retirement, he was honored with the naming of the �ֲ���ý ballfield in his honor.

Besides these marquee facts, here are 11 things to know about Chick Leahey, who was also an assistant football coach for 33 years.

1. He cut the son of Red Sox legend Ted Williams from the �ֲ���ý baseball team.

Deservedly so. The late John Henry Williams, a �ֲ���ý student briefly in the late 1980s, tried out for, and quickly got cut from, Chick’s team.

“He had no talent,” says Pete Doucette ’90, a former Bobcat pitcher. “It’s a story you figure you’ll tell your grandkids: How you saw Ted Williams’ son get cut from your college baseball team.”

William “Chick” Leahey ’52 dons his No. 11 �ֲ���ý jersey at his home on East Avenue. His jersey will be retired Saturday at halftime of the Homecoming football game vs. Colby. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

2. He was a Marine during World War II.

A private, Leahey served for 33 months, including 16 in the Pacific Theater. He loaded bombs onto B-15s and was being trained for a Japanese invasion when the war ended.

3. He never played an inning of college ball.

That’s because Leahey was ineligible for college ball because he came to �ֲ���ý afterin the New York Yankees organization.

With highly touted prospects in front of him, including Billy Martin, he decided it was “in my best interest to go to college and get on with my life.”

Leahey chose to wear No. 11 as �ֲ���ý’ baseball coach because that was the number he wore in high school and with the Yankees organization.

4. He never got ejected from a game.

In his half-century of organized baseball, including high school, minor league, semi-pro, and 36 years as a head coach of �ֲ���ý baseball, Leahey never got ejected from a game by an umpire.

5. He’s a Mainer, born and bred in Lewiston.

His mom was French Canadian. His dad, who worked in the Lewiston Bleachery and Dye Works factory, was Irish. He went to Lewiston High School.

6. He’s a winner who loved to win.

His senior year at Lewiston High School, Leahey led the school to state championships in football as a quarterback and in baseball as a shortstop.

After the war, he played four seasons for the legendary Auburn Asas at the beginning of the golden age of Maine semi-pro baseball.

Facing teams like the Augusta Millionaires, Farmington Flyers and Dixfield Dixies, the Asas (pronounced “Aces”) easily drew several thousand fans to games “under the bulbs” at Pettengill Park in Auburn.

In Leahey’s first year, 1949, the Asas went 50 and 19 with two ties. The 1950 team went 45 and 28. Leahey was player-coach in 1951, and the team won the Down East League title with a 35 and 19 record. In 1952, the team went 39 and 20 and again won the league title.

And though Chick’s �ֲ���ý coaching record fell short of .500, he notched 300 wins in 36 years as head coach, and in 1976 his team won the ECAC championship.

Chick Leahey (right) runs a bunting drill during an early spring practice in the Gray Athletic Building. (Photo courtesy of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

In his first year, John Willhoite ’75 remembers a game against Colby, then coached by John Winkin, who would later lead the University of Maine to six College World Series appearances.

Winkin had been named National Baseball Coach of the Year in 1965, so he already had an outsized reputation in coaching circles.

That day, Willhoite pitched the underdog �ֲ���ý to a win over Colby.

“That may have been the happiest I ever saw Chick,” Willhoite recalls. “I thought he was going to kiss me. We also beat Winkin and UMaine, then not far removed from their College World Series appearance, my senior year, another highlight for Chick and me.”

7. He empowered his lieutenants.

“Although he steered the ship, he counted on the senior leadership to make the engine run,” said Dennis Gromelski ’88. “I respected him for his desire to let young men make significant decisions about their team. The lesson here was of empowering lieutenants.”

8. The team came first.

Gromelski recalls that infamous spring when John Henry Williams tried out for the team. “Chick loved Ted and really wanted access to him, but didn’t want that to affect the locker room in any way.”

So Leahey consulted the team’s senior leaders, and they recommended cutting Williams. “Although Chick did not get his ‘access,’ he supported us fully,” Gromelski says.

9. He was a father figure to his players.

“He was nothing less than my father while at �ֲ���ý,” says Jim Sylvia ’84. “On the field, he taught me the importance of hard work and commitment. He disciplined me when I got out of line — a lot — and praised me when I succeeded.”

Chick Leahey and his wife, Ruth Leahey, in their home on East Avenue in Lewiston. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

10. He was an innovator.

In 1986, as president of the New England Collegiate Baseball Coaches Association, he issued a directive to regional coaches to ban smokeless tobacco by players and coaches.

11. His lessons stuck with his players.

Bill Carlezon ’86 was a lefthanded pitcher for Leahey who now does world-class research at Harvard Medical School, where he seeks to understand how genes affect complex motivated behaviors.

When Carlezon faces a vexing problem, he’s motivated by a voice his head. It’s Leahey, shouting to his team when they were in a jam. “Find a way!” he would yell. “Find a way!”

Sylvia says that Leahey’s example “taught me the importance of prioritizing family and all that entails. His loving relationship with his astonishing wife, Ruth, and the rest of his family have been an inspiration for me for over 30 years.”

“At no other time did I learn more about baseball and how to conduct myself on the field and as a person in general than when I played under his guidance,” said Thom Freeman ’63, an All-American pitcher for Leahey.

And one more…

That nickname, Chick? Well, Leahey and his wife, Ruth, know the origin but they’re not telling!

Acknowledgement: This story includes information about Chick Leahey’s career originally published in “Caddy Camp: Of Boys, Men, Golf and War,” a history of the Poland Spring Hotel caddy camp written by Karl Lindholm, son of the late Dean Emeritus of Admissions Milton Lindholm ’35. Leahey and the late Bob Hatch, who became �ֲ���ý’ director of athletics, co-directed the summer camp early in their �ֲ���ý careers.

The Helen A. Papaioanou Award for Extraordinary Service to �ֲ���ý recognizes service to our college that is truly distinguished in both quantity and quality.

Professor Emeritus of Physical Education William J. “Chick” Leahey Jr. ’52 received the award at the Annual Gathering of the Alumni Association on June 7, 2014. It was presented by President Clayton Spencer and Jennifer Lemkin Bouchard ’99, president of the Alumni Association.

Leahey was joined by fellow award recipients Esther Rosenthal Mechler ’64 (Alumni Community Service Award), Christian Rogers ’04 and Katherine Papadonis Rogers ’04 (Distinguished Young Alumni Award), and, receiving �ֲ���ý’ Best awards, Elizabeth Metz McNab ’64 and Victoria Wyeth ’01.

Citation for William “Chick” Leahey

As the �ֲ���ý College baseball coach from 1955 to 1990, Chick Leahey taught hundreds of Bobcat ballplayers how to play at the collegiate level — how to field ground balls, throw strikes and hit line drives.

But there was so much more to his service to our college.

William J. Leahey Jr. ’52 poses with his wife, Ruth, at the Annual Gathering of the Alumni Association on June 7, 2014, where he received the Helen A. Papaioanou Award for Distinguished Service. (H. Lincoln Benedict ’09)

A member of this country’s Greatest Generation, Chick Leahey grew up in Lewiston during the Great Depression. One of the city’s best schoolboy athletes, he joined the Marines after graduating from Lewiston High School and served in the Pacific during World War II.

Like many of his generation, Chick’s wartime experience has stayed in the past. But we can guess that the experience of being an 18-year-old Marine, serving alongside boys no older than the students he would later coach at �ֲ���ý, touched him deeply.

After the war, Chick took a swing at the big time in the New York Yankees’ farm system, but ahead of him in the Yankees’ pipeline were the likes of Jerry Coleman and Billy Martin. The GI Bill meant opportunity, so Chick decided to enter �ֲ���ý in 1948, then returned in 1955 to coach baseball and build an extraordinary record of service to �ֲ���ý and �ֲ���ý students.

In 36 seasons, Chick’s baseball teams won 300 games. Five times advancing to postseason play, �ֲ���ý won the regional ECAC championship in 1976, about as far as a NESCAC team could go in those days.

“The lesson he taught us was about empowering your lieutenants.”

Today, the name Leahey still means great baseball — literally, because the �ֲ���ý baseball diamond is named for Chick. Less a field of dreams, it is a real reminder that Chick has passed along the gifts of integrity and character to generations of �ֲ���ý athletes.

As a coach and mentor, Chick treated his players with great respect while having great expectations for their leadership. Chick was the head coach, to be sure, but year after year he would give his seniors an ownership stake in the team, from helping with practice routines to even advising on final team cuts. As one Bobcat said just the other day, “The lesson he taught us was about empowering your lieutenants.”

There is a multiplier effect of goodness that comes from playing college sports. Chick was fair and firm with his players, teaching them to compete fiercely yet honestly. He showed them that hard work, commitment and dedication were the ultimate transferable skills.

As one Bobcat-turned-youth-coach said, “I’ve tried to model everything he taught me.”

As his players graduated and raised families, they multiplied those values by volunteering to coach youth teams in their own communities. There are good youth coaches and there are bad ones. On this happy day, we can easily imagine that the ballplayers who played for Chick are some of the best because they took their cue from their old coach. As one Bobcat-turned-youth-coach said, “I’ve tried to model everything he taught me.”

That includes even the Maine slang used by Chick and his longtime assistant coach Bob Flynn. So if you ever attend a youth baseball game outside New England but hear the kids talk about “wicked” fastballs and “wicked” home runs, you might ask the coach if he played for Chick.

There’s another former Bobcat, a pitcher, who does world-class research at Harvard Medical School, where he seeks to understand how genes affect complex motivated behaviors.

When this researcher faces a vexing problem, he is urged on by a memory. His mind goes back to when he was on the mound, the team was in a jam and Chick would shout encouragement from the dugout.

The encouragement always came in three words: “Find a way!” he would yell. “Find a way!”

Chick, you have shown the way for countless �ֲ���ý men across three generations. Your devotion to coaching has inspired pride and loyalty in all who have played for you, and you represent �ֲ���ý’ values in every aspect of your life. You set a standard of excellence that lives on in every aspect of �ֲ���ý College, and it is my distinct pleasure to recognize you with the Helen A. Papaioanou Award.