Through his years as a youth sports coach, Robert “Bob” Burt always knew why he was there: the kids. That’s according to anyone who knew him or played for him, including his children and some of the city’s most elite athletes.
“Bob’s in with all those guys who kids like me, and my generation, looked up to,” said Dick Newton, athletic director at Lynn English and an early disciple of Burt’s in the East Lynn Pop Warner football program. “Those guys followed us all through high school, supporting us.
“They were lifelong influences,” said Newton, who played quarterback at English. “They were just good guys.”
Burt, 88, died April 19. He was a co-founder of East Lynn Pop Warner and co-coached the A-team for many years. He also served as a manager or coach for three different little leagues: Lynn Shore, Lynn Central, and East Lynn.
One of his sons, Tim, was a standout pitcher for St. Mary’s in Lynn, and hurled a no-hitter the day the school was celebrating “Tony C. Night” in a game against Arlington Catholic. And his granddaughter, Kaitlyn (Katie) Burt, was a goalie for the Boston College women’s hockey team and led the Eagles to the 2016 NCAA championship game. A grandson, Christian, pitched in the Babe Ruth World Series in North Dakota in 2016.
“He worked a lot and didn’t always show up for some of my games when they started,” Tim Burt said. “But I always knew when he came. He’d yell out, ‘Hey hey!’
“He was always, always present,” Tim Burt added. “And he was quiet – not a yeller. He’d sit by himself and not with the other parents. He’d be calm. The night I pitched that no-hitter, he didn’t even know it was a no-hitter.”
“But,” said Tim’s brother, Jim, “He was really excited about that game. All the Conigliaros were going to be there. He was psyched. It was a wild night.
“After the game, win or lose, it was always the same. He’d give me a hug and say, ‘Great game.'”
Katie Burt, a goaltending prodigy at the age of 13 when she starred for the Lynn Jets hockey team consisting of Classical and English combined, now coaches at Providence College. She says she enjoys teaching college kids the ins and outs of the game.
“Papa was such a man of service,” she said. “I think coaching in general is a way of service. It’s a lot of hours, and the people who do it – and do it well – do it because they love to give service.
“That’s a testament to the legacy he leaves,” she said. “It’s up to us to keep it going. That’s why I genuinely like doing it. I want to leave it better than I found it, and that has shades of Papa all over it. That’s just who he was.”
Tom Mason is another former player who was a captain of the English football team. He, too, credits a lot of his pre-high school development, both in the sport and in life, to Burt.
“Mr. Burt taught perseverance, dedication, respect, humility and to always give your best – every play,” Mason said. “Everybody I knew who played for him said the same thing: He was the best.”
“There was a whole group of guys with that Pop Warner team,” Jim Burt said. “My dad, Ed Battle, Dick Truax, Tom Price … they used to stand around in the parking lot after games, and just talk about them.
“When it was our turn,” he said, “We’d do the same thing.”
“I remember back in 1980 – I was not even 17 – he came up to me after a game and said, ‘I knew you’d be a great player.” Mason said. “It made my day. Nobody ever had a bad word to say about him. He wasn’t always warm and fuzzy, and he was no pushover, but he was like a second father to me.”
“He was like a second father to all those kids back then,” Newton said. “He was a good man.”
