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Volume 13, Number 11

November 2014

Xavier Dedicates Field to Larry McHugh

by Kathleen Pulek

The newly-dedicated Larry McHugh Field during halftime of the 27-7 win over West Haven Saturday, Oct. 18.
Photo courtesy of Xavier High School.

great day for Larry, his family, his friends, the Xavier
community and the high
school as a whole.
We knew the dedication and Homecoming
weekend would draw a good
crowd. We had seating for
1,100-1,200 spectators, with
the rest standing along the
fences.
Xavier had made a
decision to begin a capital

INSIDE
READ
MORE

Neil Scarfo

Dick Nobile

Even Better the Next Day

For after the Thanksgiving feast,
chef Richard Moriarty has recipes for the leftovers.

Joanne Francis

Sharon Hoy

football teams will play on

Larry McHugh Field. In the
spring, lacrosse and ultimate
Frisbee will use the field,
and some physical education classes, when possible,
will be able to participate on
it, Brinn continued.
With the success
weve had this past weekend bringing a homecoming football game back to

Continued on page 16

Chronicled

In the Kitchen

Page 24

Feature

campaign, which includes

a new arts wing, improving our athletic facilities
and putting a new turf field
down. Bob Guere and Brian
Hetherington, both Class of
1981, serve as co-chairs.
When it came time to name
the field, it was a pretty easy
decision.
Right now, our varsity
and jayvee soccer teams and
our freshman and jayvee

Home Grown
Dortha Cool Willetts explores
Long Lane Farms annual Harvest
Festival.
Page 6

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More than 1,700 people

jammed the Xavier High
School campus Saturday,
Oct. 18, to celebrate Larry
McHugh, the man who
spent 20 years at the school
as an educator, a motivator,
a highly successful coach
and the father of the Falcons football program.
Mayor Dan Drew designated the Saturday as
Larry McHugh Day. The
Xavier community and
its league of alums shared
breakfast before dedicating the recently completed
Larry McHugh Field, thus
ensuring an enduring link to
the schools proud past and
that the legacy of their first
football coach will never be
forgotten. They also experienced the enjoyment of the
Falcons 27-7 Homecoming
win over the West Haven
Blue Devils in the first varsity football game played on
campus in many years, as
well as a jubilant post-game
reception.
We had a great weekend. It couldnt have been
better, said Greg Brinn,
Xaviers director of advancement. This was an
honor long overdue and a

Chronicled

Xavier Honors Larry McHugh with Field Dedication

Xavier and our alumni thrilled to be back on
campus, we hope to incorporate the new facility into the varsity schedule so we can get
that true home field advantage. At a minimum, we hope to have our varsity football
homecoming game here each year, though
Palmer Field is still very much a part of varsity football and will be for a while because
of seating and parking and continued construction on campus, said Brinn.
The legendary McHugh admitted to
a flood of emotions and memories during
the week leading up to the dedication. I was
getting so many emails from former players
who couldnt make it to the dedication and
homecoming game and they were telling me
how much I meant to them.
I went out to Xavier on Thursday,
where I was interviewed by WTNH, got to
talk to the football team and saw the field.
On Saturday morning, there were over 300
people at a breakfast, most of whom were
former players, including some from all the
way back to my first Xavier team.
When I walked out to the field for the
dedication, I flashed back to 1964-1967,
when we played all of our games on campus. We had some great victories on that
field, reflected McHugh.
I also thought of the two special people
I needed to thank--Wally Camp and Artie
Kohs. Wally hired me at Durham, which
is now Coginchaug. I had gotten released
by New York [Titans of the American Football League] in 1961 after a broken foot. I
took a job teaching eighth grade science and
planned to go back and play professional
football. Then the Xavier job opened up in
1963 and Wally recommended me. I talked
to Artie [former Xavier athletic director and
coach], who hired me and that was it. It just
seems like yesterday.
The field dedication means a lot.
Xavier is where everything started for me.
Its a huge honor that ranks right behind
getting married and my kids and my grandkids, according to McHugh, who remains
close with former players like Class of 1969
members Tommy Tokarz and Tony Jaskot,
the current Director of Athletics at Xavier
and McHughs successor at the Falcons
helm. When someone like Tommy or Tony
still calls me coach, well, thats the highest
honor for me.
Two games that define McHughs
coaching tenure at Xavier are the 1965
victory over Hillhouse and the 14-7 comefrom-behind win over Northwest Catho-

From left, Capital Campaign co-chairs and members of the Class of 1981 Bob Guere and Brian Hetherington,
Larry McHugh and Xavier parent and Brians father, Ray Hetherington. Photo courtesy of Xavier High School.

lic (1973) We had a lot of great wins, but

those two are signature victories. Hillhouse
was a state power and we were supposed to
get clobbered by something like 40-0. Over
10,000 fans saw our last minute win over
Northwest Catholic. That was our 34thstraight victory, which set the Connecticut
and New England record, said McHugh,
who posted a 152-36-6 record as varsity
football coach at Xavier (1963-83) along
with a trio of undefeated seasons in 1971,
72 and 74.
McHughs legacy also includes numerous local, regional and national awards,
designations and honors, including National Coach of the Year 1973; Connecticut
Coaches Hall of Fame 1984; Connecticut
Sports Writers Alliance Gold Key 1985;
Middletown Sports Hall of Fame 1994; New
Haven Gridiron Club Hall of Fame; and the
American Legion Americanism Award.
The past president of the National High
School Athletic Coaches Association was
named one of Hartford Magazines 50 Most
Influential People in 2012. Four governors
in a row appointed McHugh to the Board
of Trustees of the Connecticut State University System, where he served for 27 years,
part of the time as chairman, attesting to
his commitment to academics. His rigorous schedule includes serving as the Chairman of the UConn Board of Trustees as
well as President of the Middlesex Cham-

ber of Commerce, which he has built into

the states largest and most active chamber

while increasing membership ten-fold.

The Larry McHugh Senior Leadership
Award is presented annually to a Xavier senior football player that puts the needs of
the team first and his personal goals second
and who provides leadership on and off the
field by his actions, effort and play.
It was great tospend some time with
former players, family, friends and longtime supporters, said McHugh. But as
I have repeatedly noted, this is the players field, not mine. I want to thank Xavier
High School, and in particular Headmaster
Brother Brian Davis, Director of Athletics
Tony Jaskot, Director of Advancement Greg
Brinn, the Capital Campaign Committee led
by Bob Guere and Brian Hetherington and
former Director of Athletics Art Kohs, said
McHugh, who saw his 1974 Xavier state
championship football team (10-0) honored
during halftime of Homecoming.
I was fortunate to be hired at an unbelievable school. Xavier is a very, very special place. My legacy is not the wins and
losses. My legacy is the players and students
I coached and taught and who have become
outstanding leaders in their communities,
said McHugh.

Xavier High School headmaster Brother Brian Davis with Larry McHugh. Photo courtesy of Xavier High School.

MCHS Hosts Donald E. Williams

16

The Chronicle - November 2014

Every Tuesday beginning September 30, 10:30-11:30am

represented the 29th Senate District of Connecticut from 1993 through 2014. In addition to his career in public service, he has
served as an attorney, educator, and journalist. He graduated from Syracuse University
and earned his law degree from Washington
and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. Copies of the book will be
available for purchase and inscription.
Congregation Adath Israel, located at
the corner of Broad and Old Church Streets,
is handicap accessible. The program is free
and open to the public, although donations
are welcome. For further information, contact the Historical Society at 860-346-0746.

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Donald E. Williams, Jr., the author of

the recently published book Prudence Crandalls Legacy: The Fight For Equality in
the 1830s, Dred Scott, and Brown v. Board
of Education, will be the featured speaker
at a program sponsored by the Middlesex
County Historical Society at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at Congregation Adath Israel.
Williams will be joined by Kazimiera Kozlowski, the curator of the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, Connecticut,
who will offer remarks about the museum.
Prudence Crandall, Connecticuts Official State Heroine, was a schoolteacher who
fought in the early nineteenth century to
integrate her school in Canterbury and educate black women. Her acceptance of black
girls into the school unleashed a storm of
controversy that catapulted her to national
notoriety and drew the attention of the most
prominent pro- and antislavery activists of
the day. Crandall was arrested and jailed,
and Williams account details her legal
legacy. Crandall v. State was the first fullthroated defense mounted for civil rights in
United States history. The arguments by attorneys in Crandall played a role in two of
the most fateful Supreme Court decisions,
Dred Scott v. Sandford, and the landmark
case of Brown v. Board of Education.
Williams served as the President of the
State Senate from 2004 through 2014, and