On the face of it, the Harry Agganis Basketball Tournament, held last weekend at Saint George Greek Orthodox Church, brings to mind much tragedy.
We start with the tragic and untimely death of Agganis himself – an unexpected event that had far-reaching repercussions. Agganis became the starting first baseman for the Boston Red Sox after stellar athletic careers at Lynn Classical and Boston University. His star was still rising when it was shot down.
The tournament also paid homage to George Mazareas, a former Lynn School Committeeman who played professional basketball overseas. “Maz” was a man of many interests and passions who was only 42 when stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He died 20 years later, in 2023, and inspired all who knew him with his courage in the face of a disease he knew was fatal.
One thing George never lost through the worst of his illness was his devotion to family. And what a family it’s turned out to be. And this year’s “Maz” Award winners reflect that vividly.
Cousin Katerina Mallios, and twin sisters Niki and Polixeni Tsiotos, were the winners this year. Their other cousin is Eleni Mazareas – George’s daughter.
Before we get to anything else, Eleni was born in 2003, the same year George was playing in a basketball game and, for some reason, couldn’t position his fingers to make a pass he’d made thousands of times. Of course, there’s never just a “for some reason.” There’s always a reason.
And this was the beginning of George Mazareas’ struggle with ALS. Imagine. You just welcomed a daughter into this world and at the same time, you are staring down the barrel of this horrible death sentence.
But George knew what to do. He vowed, according to his wife, Cynthia, to survive the disease for as long as possible simply because he had a daughter and there was so much he wanted to teach her.
I’m sure some of those lessons involved basketball. And similar lessons were imparted, obviously, on the Tsiotos sisters and to Mallios. The four of them were on the same court when they led their team to the National Hellenic Basketball Championships last April. There’s some expression about how far the apple falls from the tree that applies here.
If George taught his daughter and her cousins anything, it was the nobility of soldiering on when hit with crises. Because if anyone soldiered on, it was George. When he was diagnosed, he wrote a piece in The Item about being faced with the stark question of “do I live … or do I just die.”
George chose to live. He got involved in as many things as he could, as he had a wide variety of interests and passions. And he kept up his involvement until he was physically unable to do so.
I never knew Aristotle George “Harry” Agganis (I was 2 years old when he died), though I feel as if I did. Working on the program for the Agganis Games for as long as I did gave me somewhat of a knowledge of him. And my older cousin Bob Ignatowicz was still a little kid when Agganis played football for Classical and put Manning Bowl and the City of Lynn on the map. He always said Harry was a man playing with boys, but at the same time, as humble as a guy could be under the circumstances.
Though their illnesses and deaths were heart-wrenchingly tragic, both Harry and George had qualities that gave one cause for optimism that the human condition was well-represented.
Harry was the youngest of a large Greek-American family on Waterhill Street in Lynn. And despite his growing fame, Harry was, in the end, the dutiful son of Georgia Agganis. He could have easily signed for more money in the NFL, but chose to stay close to home with the Red Sox so he could be near his mother. It wasn’t strictly a case of either/or. Football was where Harry gained his fame, and baseball was much tougher for him.
George was about family. And there couldn’t be a more fitting memorial to him than to see the family three receiving an award in his honor.
