PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The first class inducted into the Presque Isle High School Athletic Hall of Fame have turned in a number of impressive accomplishments.
Among the group are two Red Sox minor leaguers, a Summer Olympic Games participant, a national champion cross country runner, a legendary coach and a track and field County champion whose record has stood for 78 years.
Four of the five living inductees and family representatives of the other five were in attendance Feb. 4 at the Northeastland Hotel, where the gathering of over 100 listened to stories of the past and were inspired by the feats of these outstanding former Wildcat athletes.
The first inductee honored was William “Bill” Hanscom, who coached basketball for 26 years and accumulated 321 victories. His 1932 team won the state championship.
As the baseball coach during that era, the Wildcats won 236 games, including an EM title in 1951.
His daughters sent a letter, with excerpts read by PIHS Hall of Fame co-chair Mark White.
“In his own modest way, he would have been pleased with this recognition,” he read. “His players could tell you stories of his understanding, patience and generosity as he helped them mature into the young men they became.
“He understood the importance of basketball for his players and for his adopted community of Presque Isle,” he continued. “Basketball gave some of his boys a chance to develop a strong self image and to learn how to success with both success and failure.”
Ralph Sweetser starred in basketball and track and field at PIHS, graduating in 1932. A member of Hanscom’s state championship basketball team, Sweetser was a brilliant track and field star who won four events in the 1932 Aroostook League meet and was a state champ in the discus and shot put. His County record in the shot put still stands.
His son, Steve, accepted the award on behalf of his late father.
“He had a passion for athletics. Growing up, he’d work all day on the farm and when his father told him his work was done for the day, it wasn’t long before he got out of there and started running to town. I think he got some of his quickness that way,” said Steve Sweetser.
“As a family, we are proud of what he accomplished.”
Next was Hubert “Billy” Shaw, who also was inducted posthumously. He was a top student, graduating from PIHS in 1932, who excelled in baseball. He went on to play baseball and football at Bowdoin College and then tried out and made the U.S. Olympic baseball team in the 1936. He has the distinction of being the first player to hit a home run in the history of Olympic baseball.
His son, Hubert Shaw Jr., thanked the committee for honoring his father and told the audience that “tonight is a celebration of all the people who teach, mentor and coach their students every day, who lead them in sports and take care of them and cause them to strive to bigger and better things.”
Harold “Hal” Cheney, a 1933 graduate, transferred from Easton. He was another member of the 1932 state title basketball team, but was renowned for his superlative ability on the baseball field as a pitcher. Cheney played five years in the Boston Red Sox organization and was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.
Jim Carter, who co-chairs the Hall of Fame along with White, told of Cheney having to help pay the tuition to attend PIHS by doing farm chores early in the morning and at night and also being responsible for going into all the small schools in the area and “making sure the coal furnaces were all going in the morning and at night.”
“He had a lot of things to do, but did that so he could participate,” Carter said. “There are a lot of lessons to be learned from his commitment at that time.”
His grandson, David Eager, accepted the award. He said his late grandfather saw sports “as his way out” and “he chose sports and worked hard at it.”
Malcolm “Mac” Dempsey graduated in 1942 and was a national championship runner, winning the National Interscholastic Cross Country Meet at Seton Hall University in Orange, N.J. with a time of 14 minutes and 52 seconds on the 2.6-mile course amongst a field of 400 runners. His team won the state championship in 1940 and placed third in New England and fourth in the nation.
Dempsey, now 86 years old and in attendance for the ceremony, quipped that it had been a long time since he’s been in Presque Isle, but requested “not to be asked how long it’s been.”
He was thankful for the honor, stating he was just “one of the team and we all acted as one under coach Wallace and Principal Cunningham.” At the end of his brief speech, Dempsey joked that he still runs today, but noted that he is “just a little bit slower.”
Also honored was Ron Staples, a 1954 graduate who specialized in baseball. His team won an Eastern Maine championship one year and was EM runner-up another. He was a talented catcher who went on to play at Colby College under legendary coach John Winkin, where he batted over .300 his sophomore season, hit four home runs and threw out 14 baserunners attempting to steal.
He played minor league baseball for five years in the Red Sox organization, playing with the likes of Carl Yastrzemski and Rico Petrocelli, and was recently inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jeanie Powers accepted the honor on behalf of her late husband. She said Staples “was born with a love of baseball in him natural as breathing and started playing baseball on “a makeshift field in Mars Hill in the 1940s.”
“He never bragged, had a good sense of humor and would give you the shirt off his back,” Powers said.
Robert “Bobby Duprey and Wayne Hartford were the next two inductees and both were in attendance. The two were PIHS classmates, graduating in 1961, and both went on to play collegiately at Husson University. Duprey and Hartford were both standouts in baseball and basketball.
Both were All-State basketball players who helped the Wildcats to a 46-1 overall record during their sophomore, junior and senior seasons. The PI baseball team won County titles in baseball both in 1960 and 1961, with Duprey playing the infield and Hartford serving as the ace pitcher.
Duprey became the second-leading collegiate foul shooter in the nation during his senior year at Husson, shooting at a 91.6 percent clip, while Hartford helped pitch Husson to conference championships on the baseball field on two occasions. He was offered a minor league contract, but turned it down.
“Running around town in the 1940s and 1950s, I knew about Hal Cheney, Ralph Sweetser and Mac Dempsey,” Duprey said. “It was an inspiration and to be inducted here tonight with them is unbelievable. I don’t feel worthy when we are talking about those people.”
He remembers being on the outstanding Wildcat basketball squads and said “we had some great athletes, but it was always about the team.”
In his speech, Hartford took the time to honor his high school baseball coach, Jim Dyer.
“He was an excellent coach who was hard-nosed and expected a lot, but was fair to everybody,” Hartford said. “There were no favorites or pets.”
Hartford dedicated his induction plaque “to all my teammates who sat on the bench, who worked their tails off in practice as hard as we did and didn’t get the same opportunities as we did.”
Byron “Barney” Smith was known as one of the best all-around athletes to compete for the Wildcats. The 1965 graduate was a 1,000-point scorer and All-State second-teamer his senior year on the basketball court, hit .400 in three of his four varsity baseball seasons and was a County champion sprinter in track. He went on to play freshman basketball and varsity baseball at Duke University
Smith resides in Jonesport and did not attend the ceremony, but his brother Melbourne accepted on his behalf.
“He hasn’t lost a bit of his competitive spirit,” said Melbourne Smith, noting that his brother still competes in golf and pool. “He goes for the jugular, and that is what separates the good athletes from the elite.”
The lone female and most recent graduate to be inducted was Kim Condon Lane. She was a top-flight basketball player who had a year to remember as a senior. In 1997, her team won the Class A state championship and she broke records and received numerous honors along the way.
She still holds the Class A record for points in a state championship game with 41 and was voted Miss Maine Basketball, the Maine Gatorade Player of the Year and to the Bangor Daily News All-State first team. She is one of the school’s 1,000 point scorers.
Condon went on to play at Colby College and scored 1,000 points before injuries ended her career midway through her junior season. She is the Mules’ 10th all-time leading scorer.
“Even though a lot of memories were from my times at the Presque Isle High School gym and the Bangor Auditorium, some of my fondest memories took place in our driveway,” she recalled, who peppered her speech with several references to her family.
She told the story about the time in high school after several games of one-on-one, that she was finally able to beat her father (Steve).
“Everyone who knows him knows he’d never let me win, so that was a great memory for me, but it’s also memorable because it is the last time we ever played one on one,” she said to the audience’s laughter.
Nomination forms for the PIHS Athletic Hall of Fame are available online at www.sad1.org or by calling the high school athletic office at 764-6507.
