When the 29thannual Dr. Elmo Benedetto Boys? Basketball Jamboree tips off tonight and the 22ndannual Paul Duchane Girls? Basketball Jamboree does the same Saturday afternoon, the vast majority of players, coaches and fans who pack the Classical High gym will appreciate the tradition that has developed over the years surrounding the two events. But they might not know much about the men who inspired them.
Benedetto, who died in 1984, would have been 100 years old this year. Duchane died in 1989 at the age of 45.
In November 1982, about 4 1/2 months after Benedetto retired as Lynn’s athletic director, there was a party held in his honor at St. Michael’s Hall. The 400 or so people who came to pay tribute represented a wide cross-section of the community. There were teachers, coaches, politicians, former students and athletes and the media, including former Item reporter John Sullivan, who covered the event.
Benedetto?s closing remarks that evening spoke to his love of the city and its young people. He urged city officials to continue to support a strong sports program in Lynn even though the city was struggling financially.
?Athletics in Lynn have always been something great,” Benedetto said. “And that’s got to continue because it’s part of Lynn’s heritage ? athletic teams and athletic people ? and that’s so important.”
Benedetto believed athletics should be part of every person?s life.
?It just has to be,” he said. “That’s part of the old Greek philosophy. It’s so vital to have your kids involved in some type of program. You’re going to be better parents and they’re going to be better kids.”
One of Benedetto’s longtime friends, Al Levy, made the trip from his home in Kentucky, where he was a professor at the University of Kentucky, to be at the celebration. Levy, a former English High basketball coach, spoke about his friend saying Lynners, like Benedetto, have always been people who have cared about other people. He said having been away from the area for some time, he appreciated that quality all the more.
?There are no phonies in Lynn,” Levy said. “There’s a bond, a unity between people. Elmo Benedetto is a symbol of what we all stood for.”
Those who knew Benedetto often spoke of how, as the city?s athletic director, he would help any young person, whether he was from Lynn or from outside the city, get into a college. Former English High boys? basketball and baseball coach Ron Bennett was a student of Benedetto’s and saw the effort Benedetto put in. As a student, Bennett would would make frequent trips to and from the post office to mail the many letters Benedetto would send out on behalf of the students he was trying to help.
?I never saw a man who did so much for people,” Bennett said yesterday. “He went out of his way to help everyone. He helped kids from everywhere and he was never looking for anything in return. He was just there for everybody. When he passed away, I tried to keep his name alive.”
Benedetto, a World War II veteran, graduated from Classical in 1931. He went on to graduate from William and Mary College and later from Boston University and Portia Law School ( nowNew England Law | Boston). He received a master’s degree from Columbia University and a doctorate from Staley College. He played football and baseball in high school and college. Benedetto was a physical education supervisor and Lynn’s athletic director before retiring in 1982. He was also a driving force behind the Agganis Foundation, which at the time he was involved, sponsored the Agganis football and basketball all-star games with the money raised going toward scholarships.
Duchane was born in Gloucester and graduated from Gloucester High in 1962. A star football player for the Fishermen, he went on to graduate from Southern Connecticut State University and later earned his master’s degree in administration from Salem State. His teaching career in Lynn began in 1971 at Eastern Junior High (now Thurgood Marshall Middle School). He w