[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING HARRY AGGANIS

 Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, there is a mid-winter tradition 
throughout New England and across my home State of Maine--talking 
baseball. Not just any baseball, of course, but Boston Red Sox 
baseball.
  These discussions, whether they take place around the kitchen wood 
stove or the office water cooler, range from the team's storied history 
to the prospects for the upcoming season. The heroes of the past, 
Yastrzemski, Williams, and so many more, are recalled, as are the more 
recent stars, such as Schilling and Ramirez.
  At times, fans reminisce about a young man who, although his career 
was cut tragically short, continues to inspire through his athleticism, 
competitive spirit, and generosity. His name was Aristotle George 
Agganis. His friends called him Harry. He will always be remembered as 
the Golden Greek.
  Harry Agganis was born in Lynn, MA, in 1929. Although he is known as 
a baseball player, he first made his mark in football as a star 
quarterback for Boston University. As a sophomore in 1949 he set a 
school record for touchdown passes. He left school in 1950 to enlist in 
the U.S. Marine Corps.
  When he completed his service to our nation, he returned to college, 
setting a school record for passing yards, winning the Bulger Lowe 
Award as New England's outstanding football player, and becoming Boston 
University's first All-American in football. Upon his graduation, he 
was offered a lucrative contract to play football for the Cleveland 
Browns but chose instead to sign with the Red Sox so he could remain 
near his widowed mother.
  Here are a few stories that illustrate the character of this young 
man and the esteem in which he is held.
  While still a student in 1953, Harry Agganis was inducted into the 
new Boston University Hall of Fame. He declined gifts of a car and 
$4,000 from his classmates and instead asked that the cash equivalent 
be put toward establishing a scholarship for Greek-American students 
with financial need.
  On June 6, 1954, he homered at Fenway Park and scored the winning run 
as the Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers. Following the game, he changed 
into a cap and gown in the Sox clubhouse, ran down Commonwealth Avenue 
in time for the graduation ceremonies on the B.U. campus, and received 
his bachelor's degree in education.
  As the 1955 season opened, he was off to a good start, but on June 2 
he was hospitalized with pneumonia. He rejoined the team 10 days later 
but fell ill again. He died on June 27 of a pulmonary embolism. Ten 
thousand mourners attended his wake.
  His career was brief, but his name lives on. In 1956, a 1,000-seat 
baseball facility, Harry Agganis Stadium, was dedicated in his honor at 
Camp Lejeune, NC, where he served. A memorial plaque placed at the 
field reads, ``Endowed with peerless talent, Corporal Agganis 
exemplified the finest in competitive spirit and sportsmanship. An All-
American football player, and later a professional baseball player, his 
outstanding accomplishments in the field of athletics were an 
inspiration to other Marines who served and were teammates with him 
during his career in the Marine Corps.''
  He was inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame 
in 1974. In 1995, Gaffney Street in Boston was re-named Harry Agganis 
Way. In 2004, Agganis Arena was dedicated in his honor on the Boston 
University campus. Each year, members of the New England Sportswriters 
Association present the Harry Agganis Award to the outstanding New 
England college football senior.
  His character and accomplishments have been set to music by a 
talented songwriter and devoted Red Sox fan in Bangor, ME, named Joe 
Pickering, Jr. Joe recently retired after 30 years of dedicated service 
as executive director of Community Health and Counseling Services in 
Bangor. It is my pleasure to have printed his inspiring lyrics into the 
Record:

                            The Golden Greek

     Time washes away people who depart
     You who remain cherish heroes of the heart
     They seldom grace earth but, not for long
     The Golden Greek lives in this song

     Too many athletes spell team as m-e
     The Golden Greek knew team meant only we
     This All-American truly stood apart
     The Golden Greek was simply pure of heart

     Four hundred churches honored for forty days
     The man who touched many hearts in so many ways
     Fifty thousand said goodbye as his church choir
     Sang love for the man who set the sports world afire

     Harry Agganis stirred heart and soul
     Did God take him so he would never grow old?
     Heroes live forever though Harry died young
     The song of the Golden Greek will always be sung

     Thousands of marines in the Carolina sun
     Named a field for the marine who left no deed undone
     The first Olympic heroes won olive wreaths
     His silver wreath from the king and queen of Greece

     The seventh child of immigrants born in Lynn
     Learned playing the game right was the way to win
     He hit major league pitching at fourteen years of age
     Then went on to glory on the sports page

     This Hall of Famer scrambled forty yards from the pocket
     He threw feather passes or shots like a rocket
     Though he looked and played like a Greek god
     This flesh and blood hero was one with the lord

     He gave to the poor and church, gifts he received
     Harry lived the golden rule, as he believed
     His smile warm and bright like sunshine in July
     Why at twenty-six did this Red Sox star die?

     The NFL played games in honor of his name
     All for a man who never played a pro game
     He planned to play for the Sox and the NFL
     What might have been only God can tell

     This hero of the heart was like no other
     His last words: were ``take care of my mother''
     In the pantheon of sports, the Golden Greek reigns
     His mem'ry glowing like the Olympic flame

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