LYNN — Lynn English High School letterman jackets can be found around the city, especially on Thanksgiving, but it is a rare find in a place as far away as Indiana.
Somehow an English letterman jacket, sporting the name Fresco and the number 37, was found in a thrift store in Crown Point, Ind.
This rare Indiana find wouldn’t mean much to somebody unfamiliar with Lynn, but English graduate Michael Battle — who now lives in Kentucky — instantly recognized the large ‘E’ and the maroon-and-gray colors.
Battle’s friend Charlie Hope, whom he recruited from Beverly to work for the state of Kentucky, was visiting a friend in Crown Point when he came across the jacket in a store they were walking by downtown.
Battle said Hope recognized the football jacket and sent him a photo saying he couldn’t believe he came across such a thing in a city so far away.
Hope left the store before Battle asked him to buy it, so Hope’s friend purchased the jacket and gave it to Battle when she went to Louisville, Ky. a few weeks later to visit a friend.
Battle wanted the jacket so he could return it to its rightful owner, someone he said he was determined to find.
Battle took to a Lynn Facebook page to post photos of the jacket, asking if anyone knew who ‘Fresco’ was.
After receiving more than 100 shares, the post reached Brian Fresco, a 2018 graduate of Lynn English.
Fresco’s cousin, Natalie Fresco — who graduated from English in 2020 — saw the post and sent it to her cousin, asking if it was his and how it ended up in Indiana.
Fresco said he woke up to his cousin’s text, and countless others from friends and family sending him screenshots of the Facebook post.
Former English teacher Lisa Mageary, who had Fresco in class, saw the post and messaged Battle on Facebook to tell him she knew whom the jacket belonged to.
Battle said Mageary spoke very highly of Fresco and helped the two get in contact with each other.
The jacket’s journey to Indiana still remains a mystery, but Fresco said he thinks it was one of the default jackets that he never received his junior year.
At the end of his junior year football season, Fresco said, his football Coach Chris Carroll told the team there would be a delay on the jackets because some of them got messed up. Although the team never received the jackets that got messed up — they didn’t have the year stitched on them — Fresco thinks the jacket found in Indiana was a part of that first order.
“I don’t know if the manufacturer was up there or what, but finding it in a thrift shop in Crown Point, Ind. is crazy,” Battle said.
Battle flew home to Lynn and gave the jacket to Fresco on Thursday outside of their alma mater, saying he was happy the jacket found its way home.
Having the jacket back in Lynn means a lot to Fresco because he said it represents the people in the city, the community and the school.
“I wouldn’t want anyone random wearing it because they don’t know the meaning and backstory of the jacket and what it really means to be from Lynn,” Fresco said. “I was glad a lot of people in the community were able to communicate with each other and reach out (to find me).”
Fresco said it was even better to have the jacket gifted to him from another Bulldog, bringing together two generations of English football players.
Fresco is currently taking courses at North Shore Community College and said he wants to work in law enforcement, but will always remember his connection and experience at English.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].