Former Campbell standout Tori Allen celebrates her 2021 Heptathlon win with Nashua's Al Savage. Savage passed away Monday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Nashua Lodge of Elks official William Grady had known Al Savage since he was 9 years old.

Thus Monday was a very difficult day for Grady and so many others in the local youth sports community as longtime local sports benefactor/supporter/organizer Savage passed away yesterday morning at the age of 95.

“Nashua Lodge of Elks Al Savage’s commitment to generations of Nashua area youth cannot be measured in mere words,” Grady said on Monday. “It ensured precious family memories from sunny ballfields to stirring marching band competitions, a pair of new basketball shoes, the roar of the home stretch sprint or a delicious awards banquet meal celebrating another season with teammates who became lifelong friends.”

Savage was a longtime chairman of the popular Nashua Elks Hoop Shoot, the famed youth free throw shooting contest that is also held on a state, regional and national level.

He also helped start Biddy Basketball in the city, plus also helped, with late longtime Nashua coaching legend Fran Tate, to start the high school New Hampshire Decathlon and Heptathlon that is held annually in Nashua in mid-June.

The Decathlon is the oldest high school decathlon in the country.

Savage, whose wife Marion passed away in 2019, worked with him on his many community endeavors that also included helping underprivileged youths. The Savages were named Citizens of the Year in 1981 and were inducted together in August of 2020 into the Nashua Lions Club’s Legends of Holman Stadium Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Nashua Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.

He will forever be synonymous with the famed Elks Hoop Shoot, but his contributions were so many more, as the Telegraph recounted a few years ago with a list of events, programs or organizations Savage either founded, or had a hand in founding:

Elks Championship Field Day in 1955; boys Biddy Basketball League, 1956; State Decathlon and Heptathlon, 1957; Elks-sponsored Little League baseball team, 1963; Elks Cub Scout Pack 720 in 1964 and Boy Scout Troop 720 in 1965; debut of the Elks Trojans Junior Drum and Bugle Corps, also in 1965; Elks Pop Warner football program, 1969; Elks Hoop Shoot Free Throw contest, 1972; Nashua Elks all-girl all-star hockey team, 1973; girls’ Heptathlon, 1977; and the Elks Youth Soccer Shoot program, 1999.

“For kids growing up in 70s and early-80s Nashua, Al Savage was one of those Nashua fixtures,” Nashua PAL official Joe Laplante said. “An omnipresence around youth athletics during the era between (legendary Nashua High coaches) Buzz Harvey/Tony Marandos and the emergence of travel sports and pay-to-play. …

“Al was one of the pillars, one of the guardians of that type of community-minded youth sports ….Even though those days are gone, Al strove to keep that spirit alive with traditional local events. Our Nashua PAL kids love competing in the annual Elks Hoop Shoot, and we make sure to send them every year.”

Grady has one simple message for the iconic Savage:

“Thanks Al.”

Newsletter