Telegraph photo by TOM KING From left Legends of Holman Hall of Fame inductees Woody Woodland, Al Savage and Mo Arel celebrate with Lions Club president Erin Freda during Sunday's induction ceremony prior the the Nashua Silver Knights game at Holman Stadium.

NASHUA – Al Savage remembers the first state high school Decathlon that he helped organize at Holman Stadium.

“My wife made cake, sandwiches and lemonade for the athletes,” said Savage, who was inducted into the Nashua Lions Club Sports Legends of Holman Hall of Fame along with former Nashua radio broadcaster Woody Woodland and former Nashua mayor Maurice Arel on Sunday just prior to the Nashua Silver Knights game with Brockton.

Savage got a nice surprise as his late wife Marion – she passed away a year ago – was inducted with him, her name next to his on the plaque on the main concourse of the stadium.

That Decathlon, started by Savage and legendary Nashua coach Fran Tate, is the oldest such high school decathlon in the country.

Savage was thrilled at his induction.

“I feel wonderful,” said the 94-year-old Savage,who also played football as a tackle for Nashua High School legendary coach Buzz Harvey back in the 1940s. He was a guard for the semipro Nashua Tigers later on at Holman.

“This year’s group is a unique group,” Nashua Lions Club official Ed Lecius said. “The joke was always how many lights will be on tonight for a football game. Mo realized it, put in a five-year plan. When he brought the Angels here, that took the five year plan, condensed it, and it all got done.”

Lecius said Arel’s worked paved the way for what years later became a top-notch facility “not only for the Silver Knights and the teams that preceded them but for the kids of Nashua.”

“You get a park like this in the middle of the city that people can enjoy,” said Arel, who played football here for Nashua in the 1950s, on undefeated teams. “We’ve got some great, great baseball. And I have to give the city credit, the maintenance is fantastic. Nashua is very fortunate to have this. … It’ll be good for the next 100 years.

“We tried to do the best we could for the minor league team (Angels/Pirates), but it really wasn’t very good. What’s been done after I left (office) has been fantastic. At least we got it started.”

Woodland worked with Lecius as the original broadcast team doing the Angels on Nashua radio and broadcast countless high school football games at Holman.

“The first time I walked into this stadium, in 1979, the place was kind of run down,” Woodland said. “But after (Arel) got a team in here, look at it now. It’s just a gem of a ballpark. They just don’t make them like this any more.

“And the civil rights trail comes right through here with Don Newcomb and Roy Campanella (two Nashua and later Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers who broke the U.S.baseball color barrier at Holman).”

Savage, who has been a major youth sports promoter in Nashua, in his brief induction speech paid tribute to his late wife, saying that with her induction, “We’re together again.”

“Al’s Mr. Everything when it comes to youth and so is his wife,” Lecius said. “You get one, you get the other.”

And Sunday you get four worthy additions to the Legends of Holman.

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