The press box at Stellos Stadium hasn’t been the same the last couple of years. The place really came alive when Tom MacDonald walked into the box.

The Big Mac. That’s what yours truly would call him on the numerous high school football broadcasts we did over the years on Nashua’s TV-13 and E-TV.

The guy could entertain. Mac always spoke his mind, and the truth, when he talked to you or did those games. He was a wealth of information. And he always had a lesson or two to impart on those he felt could use it.

That’s why two institutions, Bishop Guertin High School and Stonehill College were overflowing in their praise and their sadness following his passing last week.

MacDonald also taught for a bit at Guertin, and had an award named after him. He was always opinionated but there was a lot of practical wisdom in his words, whether you agreed with him or not.

There was a bit of a bond between yours truly and the Big Mac. McDonald was actually a school board member in Braintree, Mass., at the time when this scribe’s career began back in the late 1970s, early 1980s. He had an opinion of a few coaches we both knew, and had to deal with a couple of delicate coaching personnel issues there. Also, the editor I worked for was his former sister-in-law.

And, fast forward to Nashua, it turned out we lived just down the street from each other for a few years.

The first time these eyes ever saw MacDonald, he was a nameless coach on the field during a Bishop Guertin football practice. But boy, you’d find out his name pretty quick as he was the most vocal guy out there.

MacDonald also looked pretty sharp in a baseball uniform, a onetime Guertin assistant. But he was at his best when he would evaluate kids as to their athletic ability and also their character. He recruited for Stonehill, where he was a member of its second graduating class in 1953 and also was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1999. Stonehill has mourned him in the last week the way Bishop Guertin has.

Stonehill athletic director Brendan J. Sullivan recounted in a press release by the school how MacDonald would call him on a weekly basis to check in and go over recruits, etc. He called on MacDonald’s “valuable insight.”

Perfect description.

“I will miss those calls from my friend deeply,” Sullivan said.

We know how he feels.

Mac was pretty much in touch with the local student-athlete.

He knew them all; their strengths, their weaknesses, the whole deal. You came away from a conversation with Tom MacDonald
knowing something that you didn’t before it started.

It’s funny how the mind works. Just a few weeks ago, a thought had popped in about where has the Big Mac been? It had been a couple of years, and it turns out MacDonald had been ill
and basically home much of his last couple of years, and home is fittingly where he passed.

But there’s nothing fitting about losing a guy like Tom
MacDonald.

The Big Mac is
still calling it as he sees it
somewhere, somehow.

Tom King can be reached at 594-6468 or tking@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow King on Twitter (@Telegraph_TomK).