Wednesday, March 23, 2005

A write-up about Grandpa last week in the Bristol Press...

LEONE LOVED BRISTOL SPORTS

John J. Leone, Sr., a lifelong Bristol resident who passed away here at age 89 on Sunday, will be remembered for a number of things, such as being the patriarch of one of Bristol’s best known families, as a man who dabbled in both magic and politics, and a man who gave back more than he took out of life.
On my part and others in the sports community, it’ll be his contributions to Bristol sports, those involving the kids.

I first worked with John about 15 years ago when a group of us, including Jack Lautier, Doc Gilhuly, the late Julie Larese, Ellie Wilson, Thomas R. Monahan and Lillian Wojcik, gathered to talk about having a book written on the history of Bristol sports, a project which has been crawling along since. One of John’s suggestions was to do the book by decades, each being a separate chapter. He provided other input such as to profile the top sports people each decade, among others, which, too, will be incorporated into the final product.

Since that time while reviewing the annals of Bristol sports through The Bristol Press microfilm at the Bristol Public Library, I often came across John’s name pertaining to sports. First, as one of the founders of Bristol’s first Little League, the McCabe-Waters Little League which celebrated its 50th anniversary in recent years. In recalling those founding years, John put together a brief commentary of the league from his standpoint, entitled, "Bristol’s Baseball Tradition -- In The Beginning There Is Always Little League."

John, the father of four boys and three girls, was a natural to join along in the fall of 1949 when the late Bob Casey and others had decided to bring Little League to Bristol. Through the years he served in a number of capacities, including as the league’s second president behind Bob Casey.

John, who had been employed at Wallace Barnes for 35 years, also coached the St. Ann’s Parochial School basketball team for a number of years, a group of youngsters playing both out of the school in the grammar school league and in the CYO League. According to his longtime friend, Dan Valerio, a.k.a., "coach," who mentored similar teams through St. Anthony’s Parochial School, an opponent school, "He did a good job."

Dan tells the story where he believes John and one of his CYO teams once won a state title after winning the city title. Dan said, "I’d beat him during the regular (grammar school) season, but he’d beat me in CYO play with both of us having the same players from our grammar school league teams playing on our CYO teams."

An avid collector of both baseball and basketball cards, John also followed local teams such as the Bristol American Legion and others while watching the professional games of the Boston Red Sox, New York Giants and Boston Celtics.

"Up until he got sick about four years ago, we used to go to the St. Paul basketball games," said Dan. "My wife (Jen) and I would often visit him after that and we’d bust each other about the times we coached against one another. We were all close, Jen, myself, John and his wife, Marie. She’s one heck of a nice woman."

In 1983, John was honored by the Bristol Tramps Sports Reunion Committee in receiving the William "Bill" A. Garrett Award, named after the sportswriter and newsman who introduced the sports column to Bristol readers. Joining him that year in being honored by the Tramps were the late Roger Godbout, Tony "Anthony" Lodovico, Wally Utke, Dan Valerio and the Gippers Oilers basketball team.

Julie Larese, founder of the Tramps and its longtime chairman, had only nice things to say about John Leone. He had worked with him in helping get the McCabe-Waters Little League organized and found him a fine man to work with.

"John loved doing things for the kids," Julie once told me in an interview at "The Barn," his "Godfather of Bristol Sports" headquarters in Forestville. "Whether it be basketball at the school or the Little League, he understood what sports could do for a young boy and he saw it through his own boys."