LYNN — In 1982, a group of four high school baseball coaches came together to organize a late-season tournament with a few goals in mind.
The first was to build an all-Lynn tournament with hopes of crowning a city champion. The second was to test their respective teams with competitive opponents before moving on to the state tournament, while filling their regular season schedules to the norm of 20 games.
The third, by far the most important, was to honor an impactful coach for whom they all played — Edward J. “Nipper” Clancy.
Now, 36 years later, the Clancy Tournament is as strong as ever. The level of competition, regardless of records, is always what coaches, fans and players hope to see. Wire-to-wire battles from start to finish are a norm in the Clancy, especially with Lynn bragging rights on the line among Classical, English and St. Mary’s, with North Reading as the fourth team.
The main purpose, the level of competition and the pride in representing Lynn lives on and hasn’t changed since the tournament’s inception. But the memory of Nipper Clancy, a Lynn native described by many as “a coach well ahead of his time,” could use a refresher course.
Clancy, a Classical alumnus, coached high school baseball at St. Mary’s and directed Lynn’s Post 6 legion team. All four of the coaches who founded the tournament, Classical’s Dick Maag, Tech’s Bart Conlon, North Reading’s Frank Carey and St. Mary’s Jim Tgettis, played for Clancy in their youth.
“He was one of a kind,” Tgettis said. “He had it all: character, charisma, love and knowledge of the game. He was an amazing guy, a respected veteran of World War II. It was an honor and privilege for me to play for him.”
“There was a desire within every kid to have the opportunity to play for Nipper,” Carey said. “He was an extremely well-liked coach for that era. It’s a little different now with technology. He was ahead of his time with the things he taught and the ways he taught them. He made practice enjoyable. Kids wanted to come to practice because it was an enjoyable venture.”
Outside of the field, no one carries a more vivid memory of Clancy than his son, Edward J. “Chip” Clancy Jr., who served as Lynn’s mayor from 2001-2009. Chip Clancy followed his father’s footsteps in pursuing a career in the political realm. The elder Clancy was Lynn’s city assessor.
“He was a very caring father,” Clancy said. “We had idyllic childhoods, my brother Jimmy and I. We were given every opportunity and every protection that could be afforded.”
Born in 1918, Nipper Clancy found his love for baseball during his playing career. He played semi-professional baseball, and soon after developing a passion for the sport, Clancy stepped into the coaching realm.
He also made it a point to pass his love for the game along to his two sons.
“He played for Sacred Heart and then developed an affinity for baseball,” Chip Clancy said. “He was up at Nova Scotia playing, and he played before he became a coach. He had an affinity for baseball. He was a third baseman. There was never a holiday where baseball wasn’t on the table. Jimmy and I were always Red Sox fans, we’ve always been.”
Clancy coached until 1976 and died of complications from Parkinson’s Disease later that year. Six years later, the Clancy Tournament was born.
“It’s wonderful that people still think of my father as a baseball coach,” Clancy said. “That has never died.
“He was a charismatic gentleman who understood people more than the minutiae of baseball. No one was any better at understanding people than my father.”
The tournament continues to grow deep in Lynn roots. English jumped into the fold in 1991 and Tech has since bowed out. This year’s edition marks the first year in which all three Lynn coaches, St. Mary’s Derek Dana, Classical’s Mike Zukowski and English’s Doug Mullins, have played and coached in the Clancy. The first round of play kicks off today with English against North Reading (4) and Classical against St. Mary’s (7) at Fraser Field.
Perhaps what lives deeper than the tournament is the impact Clancy created on the lives of his players. Many who played for him are proud to tell the tales of his influence both on and off the field.
“I was a good player, I’d characterize myself as being self-motivated and didn’t need a lot of push,” said Tgettis, who also coached at Classical and Salem. “But he demanded you to play at another level. You enjoyed it and you wanted to be a part of it. I felt that way as a young kid. It was my goal to play Post 6 once I knew what it was. I earned it and I was able to enjoy that. That was so important to me. Looking back on it, he impacted me tremendously.”
Tony Nicosia, a St. Mary’s alum of 1961, played for Clancy as a Spartan and with Post 6. He recalls Clancy as “the most inspirational and motivational coach I ever had the chance to play for. He taught us to never give up and never hang our heads if we did our best.”
“Baseball, in that given time, was the sport,” Nicosia said. “We didn’t have national broadcasts to compete with. When people wanted to see baseball games they’d watch the legion games. A lot of them had come to see Nipper too because he was so dynamic. My fondness part of my baseball career was playing for Nipper. I loved him. Anyone that played for him would say the same thing. He was an inspirational man and I loved playing for him.”
And for those playing this weekend who are curious about how to properly honor Clancy, Tgettis and Nicosia provided the answers.
“To play the game the way it should be played is the best way to honor him,” Tgettis said. “He was a great man. He gave all he could give. That’s the way I’d like to be remembered too. He brought that out in me.”
“I’m really proud of the fact that this continues in his name,” Nicosia said. “I hope some of the young kids take the time to ask who Nipper Clancy was. I hope the kids play up to their abilities and make it a lasting memory for the rest of their lives. My best friends are the guys I played baseball with.”
