Anniversary Celebration Honors Agganis

Boston – On the 50th anniversary of its establishment, the Harry Agganis Scholarship Foundation got its best gift yet: A $1 million boost thank to a fund raising effort led by Thomas L. Demakes, president of Old Neighborhood Foods.

The foundation took the opportunity to throw a party at the Harry Agganis Complex at Boston University in honor of its 50th anniversary. There, members of the Lynn and Greek communities, as well as representatives from the Boston University community, were treated to a film retrospective of his life, and a media panel discussion that offered perspectives on his career, as well.

The foundation, begun 50 years ago upon the untimely death of Harry Agganis, was established at the behest of Lynn attorney Charles Demakis, by The Daily Item and the Boston Red Sox, and was kept alive first by Harold O. Zimman and then by Ted Grant, principal of Grant Communications Consulting Group in Lynn.

“Tonight is a celebration of Lynn and a celebration of the Agganis Foundation,” said Demakes. “What we’ve done tonight is what people from Lynn have always done best: We’ve remembered our own, and we’ve remembered Harry.”

To date, the Agganis Foundation has awarded $1,065,000 in scholarships to 747 scholar athletes. The Agganis All-Star Classics, which constitute the main fund raising arm for the foundation, has seen more than 5,000 athletes participate since the football classic began under the guidance of the late Dr. Elmo Benedetto the year after Agganis’ death.

On hand was the first-ever recipient, Dr. Edward Glinski, who won the scholarship as a senior at Saugus High.

“Harry was an incredible person, and he was one of my role models,” said Glinski, who did his undergraduate work at BU. “When he died, I stood in that line to pay homage to him.

“Harry was unique,” Glinski said. “Harry was special.”

Glinski said that as much as the scholarship helped him get through college, what meant more to him “was the man’s name who was attached to it.”

Grant estimated that the scholarship presented to Marblehead’s Shamus Kraft pushed the foundation figure over $1 million.

“I never understood the gravity of his accomplishments,” Kraft said. “But seeing the film tonight is really an inspiration.”

Bob Ryan, a Boston Globe columnist and a regular ESPN contributor, moderated the round-table discussion that consisted of sportswriters Steve Bulpett (Boston Herald) and Steve Krause (Item), sportscaster Mike Lynch (Channel 5) and former Swampscott High coach Dick Lynch (a teammate of Agganis’ at BU). Bulpett, from Swampscott, who grew up playing basketball at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Lynn, said that he learned about Agganis early in his life, and that he always served as an inspiration to him.

Agganis was a three-sports athlete at Lynn Classical who later played for Boston University. After graduating from college, he played for the Boston Red Sox. In early June 1955, he was stricken ill, and died of a pulmonary embolism June 27.

A panel of local sports experts voted him the region’s No. 1 athlete of the 20th Century in 1999.