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Gingras spearheads move to bring back Nashua Hall of Fame

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Mar 27, 2019

Telegraph photo by TOM KING This is the cover of the program from the last induction ceremony for the Nashua Hall of Fame back in November of 2000. The Hall of Fame has been revived with the next inductiion planned for May of 2020.

NASHUA – It took a mention in passing, a telephone conversation or two, and meeting between Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras and former Nashua High School athlete George Tebbetts and local community leader Ed Lecius.

With the switch turned on, the wheels were set in motion for the revival of the Nashua Athletics Hall of Fame.

It’s something that Gingras said she had in her plans since taking the AD job nearly six years ago; now that plan has come to fruition as she made the Hall of Fame revival official Monday night at the Board of Education meeting.

“It’s been something I’ve had on the back burner since I got this position,” Gingras said recently. “Recognition of our student-athletes is top most. That’s why we’re all here, to recognize all the great things our kids do, on or off the field, pool, etc. So it’s always been in my long-range plans. So after fourish, four-and-a-half years, it was time.

“When I first came into this position, that was one thing people said, ‘Are you going to bring the Hall of Fame back?’ Or it was, ‘Are you ever going to start one’, because some people didn’t know it ever existed.”

Gingras put together a volunteer committee of current administrators,current and past coaches and community leaders, plus media.

Tebbetts was more than receptive to Gingras’ ideas.

“There’s been an incredible gap after 2000 when we honored a lot of the greatest athletes back in the day, the great coaching,” Tebbetts said. “There was this gap, and I felt, really, we need to put this back together.

“Now we have two schools, a lot of people in town, great athletes and coaches, and I thought it (would be great). I talked to Lisa, mentioned to her, I’d like to do something about this.”

After first talking with Tebbetts, about six months later, Gingras called him with her ideas, and the idea of putting a committee together to develop nomination criteria and procedure, a nominatin form, a Hall of Fame consitution, and when the time comes late next fall, vote on nominees for selection. She met with Tebbetts and Lecius last July to get their input, formulate a solid plan,“and the train’s been moving ever since.”

The Hall of Fame committee first met in November and has had two meetings since, the last one a week ago to finalize things before going public.

The plan is to have the first resumption of inductions at a ceremony in May of 2020, and likely have an induction ceremony every two years thereafter, if appropriate.

Gingras researched other high school and college halls of fame to come up with ideas.

“There was never any written document about the Hall of Fame in Nashua,” she said. “So to me it was important for longevity sake – there’s going to be a day someday when I may retire – so the next person coming in doesn’t have to come in and start from scratch.

“Other than the knowledge that George and Ed have, and their colleagues that I did not meet with, there was nothing on how is it decided, etc. So I felt it was important to put a constitution together. This is who we are, this is what we’re doing, and this is why we’re doing it.”

Gingras blamed the frequent turnover in the Nashua athletic director position since Al Harrington’s last year in 2000 – the year of the last induction ceremony – for the shelving of the inductions, as well as the North-South split from the one Nashua High School in 2004.

“It was never something that got off the ground,” Gingras said. “There were three years that were no inductions prior to The Split. So I think the Split and the turnover of athletic directors. It took four-and-a-half years before I was really able to tackle this.”

When the Nashua Hall of Fame was created, inductions were every year from 1991-2000. “They knew then they had all that history,” Gingras said. “There’s a couple of reasons for us (now) to do it every other year, because one, we never want to run out of people to induct; and the amount of work that goes into it,doing it every year, is big.

“A lot of the research I did with other high schools and colleges, there aren’t a lot of schools that do it every single year.”

Gingras said that in the constitiution, it says “not fewer than every two years”, so there’s the possibility down the road “We may find at some point, every two years is even too much, let’s go every three. We have that liberty to do that.”

“We need to tie the community together with the gap and the two schools,” Tebbetts said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Tebbetts said the current list of Hall of Fame inductees has a a broad scope. The Hall of Fame had induction ceremonies beginning in 1991 until 2000. Tebbetts was the master of ceremonies for all of them.

“Some great athletes,” he said. “And with the Nashua High School girls basketball team, No. 1 in the nation (in 1987), they were inducted into the Hall of Fame. We had John Kissell, we had Buzz (legendary AD/Coach Harvey). … 10 ceremonies.”

And now there will be an 11th in just over a year.

“And here we are, and I’m very happy about that,” Tebbetts said. “I think it’s a great effort (by Gingras). I’m looking forward to it. … I’d have to tip my hat to Lisa, she’s done a great job putting the structure together.”

“This is a very big undertaking,” Gingras said. “At one hand it’s kind of sad, on the other it’s kind of cool that the next induction is going to be 20 years after the last one.”

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The categories for nominees include student-athletes (including team managers), coaches or athletic trainers, teams, or special contributors.

All the nomination requirements, the full constitution, and links to nomination forms can be found at both the North and South athletic web sites (nashuanorthathletics.com and nashuasouthathletics.com) by clicking on “Hall of Fame”.

The first group of nominees for next May are due Oct. 1 and will likely be voted on in November-December by the committee, and after all are notified, inductees will be announced in February 2020.

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To help those who plan on making nominations – so there’s no duplication – here’s the list of the current Nashua Hall of Fame inductees by the year they were inducted:

1991 – Paul Bellavance, Ed Davis, Ed Dobrowolski,Don Grandmaison,Sally Guerrette, John Kissell, Greg Landry,Sally Madeira,Tony Marandos,Fran Tate, George “Birdie”Tebbetts,Frank Ulcickas.

1992 – Marty Badoian, Richard Belanger Maurice “Butch” Bouchard, Al Briggs, Pete Chesnulevich, Adam Gureckis, TJ Leonard, Bill Lochhead, Wilfred Michaud, Kurt Rowlette, Carl Tamulevich, Sheri Warren (Gagnon)

1993 – Pauline Albert, Ray Brooks, Bob Gordon, Bob Jauron, Brad Kreick, Mike Krueger, Nick Mandravelis, Earle McKeown, Cohen “Laddie”Renfroe, Mike Shalhoup, Rich Shrigley, Cindy Steer.

1994 – Frank Anderson, Barney Borromeo, Dick Dyer, Bill Foucher, George Gamache, John Gureckis, Louis Lemay, Charles Mellen, Paul Moriarty, Ron Salvail, Bolic Tamulevich, Kerry Welch.

1995 – Joe Andruskevich, Stephanie Byrd, Paul Duquette, Bob Gabriel, Bruce Gilbert, Kristin Janosky, Gary Kopka, Ed Lecius Sr., Nick Rodis.

1996 – Missy Ayotte, John Fagula, Gary Gilbert, Dave Hogan, Mike MacLeod, Dave Mellon, Ray Oban, Ken Parady, Terry Roy, Bill Stumpf, Ted Trudel,Jr.

1997 – Joy Barry, Mel Briggs, Richard Diggins, Sergio Hebra, Albert Lemay, Chris Madigan, Albert Neville, Ed Styrna, George Tebbetts, Don Tyle.

1998 – Benjamin Finley, Ron Cote, Lou Daukas, John Demers, Greg Derderian, Steve Frigard, Debra Haggett (Rodier), Ken Marquis, Bill Neville, Max Silber.

1999 – Celeste Blankenship (Lavoie), Marcie Byrd, Paul “Toli” Daukas, John Davis, Bruce Gabriel, Peter Gray, Joe Hardwick, Bob Labrecque, Peter Prince.

2000 – John Choate, Richard Coutoumas, Jr., Veto Kissell, Kara Leary, Philip McLaughlin, Charles Newman, Roger Simpson, Alphonse Swekla, Stacey Sweklo-Bradley.

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