Telegraph photo by TOM KING The plaque inside the gate at Holman Stadium already includes Sunday's Sports Legends Hall of Fame inductees.

That’s what local radio sportscaster Woody Woodland always says with a big smile. So let’s use his words to give the thumbs up to the Nashua Lions Club’s selection of Woodland, former Nashua Mayor Maurice Arel and local longtime youth sports advocate Al Savage for this year’s induction into the Nashua Lions Holman Stadium Sports Legends Hall of Fame.

Ah, yes, the Holman Hall, or the Legends of Holman. We love it every year, and while we missed having it on July 4, it’s great that we’ll see an induction prior to the start of Sunday’s 3 p.m. Nashua Silver Knights home game with Brockton. Expect something between 2 and 2:30 p.m.

Had this been 20 or 30 years ago, perhaps Woodland may have been calling this game for a local radio station. He’s worked for a few, including WDER, WOTW, WSMN and WMVU, and helped yours truly get into radio. Either thank him or swear at him for that. He’ll laugh either way, and tell you a story to go with it.

“I’m very excited about it,” Woodland said. “Holman has such a rich history and great feel to it.”

He’s got stories galore about games at Holman, especially the minor league games. He even took part in Nashua Pride games, doing one of the final years as public address announcer.

Telegraph file photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Al Savage, center, has been a huge proponent of youth sports in Nashua for several years, and will be inducted into the Holman Sports Legends Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Foul ball into the broadcast booth? You’d see Woodland wave a white hanky in surrender as the crowd would laugh. Fabulous.

But our favorite Woody story comes from the 1988 Bambino World Series that was held at Holman. Woodland was broadcasting the games on WSMN; it was quite the event that had teams from all over the country and crowds were four figures. So let’s think of the 50-50 raffle and how big it might be.

The number was announced, and Woodland, while on the air, blurted out, “That’s me!” Not quite sure if we remember the total, but it was possibly high three figures or low four. But he was one happy guy, and the whole press box was cracking up.

Arel, of course, helped support a project for some Holman improvements, and back in the early 1980s spearheaded the return of professional minor league baseball to Nashua as the Holyoke (Mass.) Millers were transformed into the Nashua Angels. The Angels later changed MLB affiliations to the Pirates, but stayed only until 1986, leaving after that summer to go to Harrisburg, Pa.and a new stadium. Had Arel still been in office, who knows what would have happened; he would’ve been a good match for guy who was wooing then Nashua Pirate owners Jerry Mileur and George Como, then Harrisburg mayor Stephen Reed.

No Arel, and no minor league team.

Courtesy photo Woody Woodland is always smiling, but much more so when he was broadcasting games at Holman Stadium.

“That’s absolutely true,” Woodland said. “He got that (stadium) funding through. He really pushed that through the Board of Aldermen.”

Anybody who deals with youth sports in Nashua knows Savage. What we didn’t know until his induction was announced was that he once tried to see if a running track could be built round Holman.

But he’s done so much locally. Just check out Kids Sports every winter with all the details on the Elks event he helps run, the annual Hoop Shoot foul shooting contest for kids as a well as the Soccer Shoot in the fall.

But Woodland saw many baseball and high school football games at Holman. He says the Nashua Pride’s Opening Night in 1998 was one of his favorite moments. Also a Nashua-Bishop Guertin Thanksgiving Day game when a Cardinals freshman quarterback named Steve Piwowarski came off the bench and nearly engineered an upset of the Panthers. To this day, Woodland says a ref blew the call on a potental BG two-point conversion catch on the game’s final play.

“He said it was no good because the kid was out of the end zone,” Woodland said. “BG should’ve won the game, and it was a real exciting moment.”

Telegraph Sports Reporter Tom KIng.

He saw future Major Leaguer Jamie Moyer toss a no-hitter. As a minister, a couple of times Woodland would “go down and do a chapel service and get the lineups at the same time.”

“If you loved baseball, it was just a holiday to do the games (for radio). It was just fun.”

Great stories. And three worthy inductees who have seen a lot of Holman happenings. It will be great to see them get their well deserved honor.

As Woody Woodland always says, “And don’t you think we don’t appreciate it.”

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251,tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or@Telegraph _TomK.

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