Longtime Marblehead sports supporter Haines dies at 83

William “Esso” Haines, a former game official whose support of Marblehead High School athletics drew praise from many, died at 83 on Monday.”Aside from his family, the third thing he loved was football, the second was Marblehead, and the first was Marblehead football,” Marblehead High athletic director Mark Tarmey said. “He was so proud to be a Marbleheader, to have played here, to be part of the community. He was a major, major influence on Marblehead football.”Haines’ ties with the Marblehead High football program included playing for the Magicians in high school and helping out with the Gridiron Club, which he served as president and treasurer. He turned over both roles relatively recently. Last month, at the club’s last meeting, another former Marblehead player, Evan Harris, succeeded Haines as president.Tarmey, who is also a Gridiron Club member, said, “I knew Esso very well. He was very good to me. We had a good relationship during my tenure as athletic director the last three years.”He said that Haines was “instrumental helping put on the football senior night, the football banquet, and Old-Timers Night on the eve of the Swampscott football game.”In his student days, Haines played guard for the Magicians, often double-teaming opposing players with tackle Robert Jackson, whose son Bob Jackson now coaches the Marblehead boys hockey team.”Each looked after the other,” Bob Jackson recalled. “They lived across the street as children. They went to high school together and football. It’s fair to say they swapped blood, sweat and tears with each other.”Haines later embarked on a career as a game official. He called minor-league baseball games as well as high school football and baseball games. He served as the Northeastern Conference commissioner of officials and called both NEC and Cape Ann League games. He was a referee at the Agganis Classic football game and at the Beverly-Salem Thanksgiving Day game. His last game before retirement was a Beverly-Salem game.”He was a very efficient and knowledgeable football official,” recalled Marblehead Water and Sewer Commission chairman Carl Siegel, who said that Haines got him started in officiating games. “He ran an excellent game.”After Haines retired from officiating, he served as public-address announcer at Hopkins Field while Siegel operated the clock.Still later, Siegel said, “He used to watch games at the new high school. He’d sit up in his car and watch from just up in the parking lot, or he’d get up and sit on the bench at the end of the field where the parking lot was.”Tarmey said that the school created a “special parking space” for him.”In later years, it was difficult for him to get down to the field level,” he said. “He battled cancer for quite some time. He was losing his eyesight. He fought it valiantly.”He did share in the Magicians’ success on the gridiron, past and present. He chartered a bus for fans to attend the team’s Super Bowl matchup in 2009. He also helped the 1962 football team, which won a conference championship, celebrate its 50th anniversary. Through the Gridiron Club, he helped provide equipment, maintain field conditions and present scholarship to Marblehead boys and girls affiliated with the football program, including players and cheerleaders.Haines is survived by his wife, Nancy. Jackson described them as “best friends,” saying they went “everyplace together” and that he “would do anything he could for Nancy and her family,” including her daughters.”You’d always see Esso at the football games,” Jackson recalled. “He had a laugh that everybody knew Esso was in town or Esso was around. He had a positive thing to say about everybody. I’m at a loss for words.”Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].