We're back second time in a week November 21
2025 the bristle boys Not in the studio tonight.
Not at the Don father's house, but joining us
the Don father Under the weather all week playing
hurt angry J Always angry. Yeah, I'm not right
though Crocker playing hurt Hey, how you doing?
One of the best nurses in Bristol right there.
Crocker, under the knife, just a day or two ago,
but he's here. Studio engineer, extraordinaire
Kevin Ross. No load management for Crocker. Oh
no, no, he plays every night. But speaking of
playing every night, how about bringing the noise?
Studio engineer Kevin Ross, he's got us all dutted
up. We've got merch now. We travel, we can do
remotes. We're going to do them virtual soon.
We're really taking off. Anyway, thank you to
the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame committee for
having us. And we look forward to this gala evening.
Our sponsors, always helping us out, Twister,
Baseball Clinic, Skygazer, Brewing, but never
underestimate. Our main sponsor, senior vice
president of capital security, Joe Moriello,
alive. Well planned. Speaking of well planned,
we've got quite an agenda here for you tonight.
Inductees include Brian Archibald, Gretchen Cheson,
Tom Dickow, Andy Freemuth, John Greenleaf, David
Hernandez, and Bryant Lishness. We'll get to
them later. Speaking of Hall of Fames, came across
an interesting tidbit about some former Yankees
eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame this year.
Hoping to have these names right, but obviously
the one that's in the news and started making
some noise about it the last few days, A -Rod.
Guys Hey rattle Hall of Famer No Yes, can't make
it you can make first ballot, but he has can't
make it Are you saying if bonds doesn't make
it he can make a mortal player You're not even
looking at stats you're just saying does he make
it Because forget about he's a talent does he
make a more he's like one of the best players
of all time If you'll get a stat without question
The question is, are you overlooking the PED
factor? And nobody has overlooked it for any
of those guys. You've made me change my mind.
Unless your last name is Ortiz. Bonds doesn't
get in, he's not getting in. Well, he said, I
heard him say that Barry Bonds, the greatest
baseball player that ever lived. He is. And that's
an opinion. I mean, I might still take the chubby
guy from the from the 20s and 30s. But and maybe
this guy that's at Dodger now, but. Bottom line
is we're just gonna keep holding this against
these guys when all these other gamblers and
losers are in there gamblers and drunks and losers
and Yes, okay, I don't have a vote so Once it
once a cheat always a cheat. So yeah, I'm out
speaking of Alex Rodriguez said you guys watched
any of the I haven't seen it. Yeah, I watched
part three last night. I watched part one. It
was actually Better than I thought for guy. I
hate yeah And it was actually good. The third
one, which was last night, I think that's the
end of it. Dr. Drupinski in the house. Nice.
Nurses and doctors everywhere. Alex Rodriguez.
He actually looks like a normal person now. Like
the way he admitted he was a loser. He basically
said he was a loser. He was right. He called
himself a loser? Basically, yes. He's smarter
than I thought. He says he doesn't care. He made
mistakes. He understood that he was not. He was
not going into the Hall of Fame when he took
the HGH for the second PED suspension. He got
a full year, which is unlike anybody else. So,
yeah. All right, we're going to suspend the A
-Rod talk. This is the way the night's going
to go. When special guests come by, and we have
a special one right here, the athletic coordinator
at the Bristol Boys and Girls Club And someone
that the student -athletes for years now can
always look back on and say, this guy supported
him. He had our back. That's Mr. Steve Beecher
from the Bristol Boys and Girls Club. How about
that, everybody? How we doing? Mr. Steve Beecher.
Steve? Happy to be here. Welcome to the Bristol
Boys. You know the Don Frother, it's Angry J,
Crocker, and studio engineer Kevin Ross. How
we doing, guys? Yep. What brings you to this
event tonight, Beech? Can't be the Packers. I'm
here to, and the Packers, yeah. I'm here to represent
the Boys and Girls Club. Coach Lish is getting
nominated. And he's been like, you know, my right
-hand man as far as the gladiator wrestling is
involved. I've been with the club for 20 years,
so a lot of kids have come through the doors
of the Boys and Girls Club. And, you know, just
kind of happy to see some familiar faces, including
you guys. Have you been inducted yet? I have
not, no. Do you know of a nomination yet? I believe
there's been talks about it. I know you're not
the bragger type, but can you just take us through
your football career real quick? Yeah, so I went
to Western Connecticut. I really didn't have
any thoughts of playing college football, but
I did go there. My dad helped me do all my recruiting.
I got recruited by nobody. I went to Westcon.
I got red -shirted my freshman year. And then
sophomore to senior year, I was All -Conference.
And then my senior year, I was All -American.
Who did you play for? Western Connecticut. The
head coach was? The first year was Bob Serrace.
And then it was John Burl after that. And when
I got there in 2001, the team was like 10 -1.
It was phenomenal. I mean, some of these kids...
Could play D1. Muscle Beach. Yeah. They scrimmaged
Maris that year, and they beat them 41 -7. The
Foxes? Yeah. Let's go. And that's a Division
3 versus a 1AA. So, yeah, I mean... I think that
my opinion on the Hall of Fame in Bristol, and
this is just my opinion, is I just think there's
some kids out there, or athletes, that have done
some really great things. And in my opinion,
you know, there's some kids that maybe we need
to look into and, you know, kind of dig a little
deeper. That's awesome. Hey Beach, I know you've
always been great to all the local teams. You
helped me practice. I coached for you for a couple
years. Now you see all these kids going through
your programs. It's basketball, volleyball, wrestling.
You guys do everything. At one point, you're
going to be maybe inducting some of these people
because they went through you to get there. Absolutely.
Are there kids you're like, all right, that person,
they're going to be here one day. 100%. Well,
within the last two years, there's three girls
that have come out of my basketball program that
have scored 1 ,000 points. And for the city of
Bristol, I think there's only maybe 12 in total.
It's all three schools and three of them came
out of just my program so it's pretty cool to
see and you know it's just the start you know
there's other kids that are gonna you know there's
kids basketball that's just basketball we don't
realize that there's maybe a dozen kids right
now wrestling in college. You know, college wrestlers
that came out of our Gladiator program, their
wrestling college. You know, so, you know, there's
kids that are swimming, there's kids that are
doing volleyball. Kids that are golfing. Kids
that are golfing. So it's sports in general in
Bristol is on the rise, in my opinion. Angry
Jay, you're going to love this about Big Beach,
which one of his other nicknames. You should
have seen a picture of this guy when he played
back then. This guy who walks on the trails and
goes jogging nowadays looks like Lance Armstrong
compared to this maniac that was playing football
back in the day. But anyway, Beach, tell the
audience and Angry Jay and Crocker, like, if
you have your after -school program going on
or a basketball tournament going on and somebody's
out there playing air hockey or something and,
you know, the disc goes flying off the table
and it's not picked up or somebody's bouncing
the ball against the windows in there, what happens?
They get hollered at, in a nice way. Big Beach
is, I yell a little bit, I raise my voice, but
it's all love. It's never like yelling at a kid.
It's all positive. But you're old school. There's
expectations in the club. Absolutely. I love
it. Play with whatever you want, but put it away.
Yep. And the one good thing about the Boys and
Girls Club is that we've had kids that have come
through our program that can't necessarily afford
it. and we always find a way. We always scholarship
kids. Your family's been great about that too.
My mom will scholarship a couple basketball players
every year and her only requirement is like a
letter saying thank you and that means more to
her than anything, than any recognition. The
Beach family, unbelievable. How did you guys
become Packer fans? You know what it was my dad
I guess loved the color of the uniforms back
in the day and I love it because there's not
a lot of Packard fans around and You know, we're
die -hard. We go to Lambeau every year. It's
great. I like it because they play one of my
favorite songs after touchdowns. What's that?
Well, because I don't want to work, right? They
play that Big Beach. Last thing, were you offense
or defense? Offense. I was an offensive tackle.
Could you pancake a bitch or no? Oh, yeah. I
have film. I walked in my senior year at 330
pounds. He wasn't into the Hall of Fame either.
Well, the push is on and we're going to let the
right people know. They brought us down here.
some influence. Big Beach, we need you in the
Hall of Fam. Thank you brother, appreciate you
guys. Thank you for stopping by. Take care. Go
club. Thanks Beach. Big Beach. Alright, let's
get back to the Yanks. Andy petted a Hall of
Famer? Yes. No. Angry Jay, I know you're a big
petticoat. The Red Sox fan says yes and the Yankees
fan says no. I love it. Well the bar's been lowered,
keep that in mind. He tested positive for HGH,
he's out. I love the guy. What if he didn't?
Absolutely. Absolutely. How many total wins?
The over 200? Oh, yeah. He's like 250. Is he?
Yeah. Okay. And you put in his postseason stats,
which are... Supposed to be excluded though,
right? No. I mean, why do you think Kirby Puck
is in? Yeah, I guess. Then why is Bernie not
in? I mean, this is ridiculous. That's a great
question. Bernie one should be in the Hall of
Fame. Andrew Jones on this list. You know, he's
actually a great question. I don't think he has
enough hits. Burnie should get it over him. What
about the 10 gold gloves? That's not good enough.
It is. I mean, that's a huge factor. He's one
of only four guys to hit 400 home runs and win
10 gold gloves. Who are the other ones? Griffey,
Schmidt and Mays. Look at this guy. Only one
non -center fielder in that list. Right. He's
an interesting case because he's an all -time
outfielder. Again, he's got 1 ,800 hits. His
average isn't great. But the question is, how
much do you weigh defense? Because he's one of
the best outfielders of all time. Back then and
now, you feel bad for a guy like Jones, who got
those gold gloves. And guys voting now might
not consider that as much as they did 20 years
ago. He ruined a night for me in 1998, I think.
Yeah, 96 against Pettit in the first game. Oh,
96. He was 19. He sent Dingers off Pettit. Two
in a game. But they didn't win that series. Larritz,
King. The King. He hit him off the pettit too,
by the way. He's actually a great one to bring
up because of the 10 goal gloves and the 450
home runs or whatever he has. If you have a vote,
what are you voting? You know, nowadays... What
are you voting? I'm gonna explain it. I'm gonna
explain it to you. Nowadays, guys get in that
are like, I would probably vote for him now.
I would. I don't think he's getting in because
of the hits. And if he got over 2 ,000 hits,
I think he'd be an arm addict. Is that Johnny
Unitas? Yeah, he's an interesting guy to me.
I know he's not a Yankee, but the more I look
at Elvira Bell and some of these guys that get
in, she'd be in too. Hey, Mac, I gotta roll it
out, because I only have one baseball trivia
question, so I want to ask analysis. You're talking,
you're okay. It's not a guy in the 2 ,000s, so
I'll fair warn everybody. Why does that guy got
a white shirt on with a blue number 19 on it?
Johnny you know go ahead Okay, this angry you'll
probably get this Who hit 86 home runs in the
state of New York, but never played for a New
York team? 86 home runs in New York stadiums
never played for a New York team. That's the
most By a non. Yeah, it's an older guy. So it's
an older guy. Yep. It's I would go he's a very
well known guy Never played for either team.
Never played for any New York team. It's like
something like Stan Musial or... Jesus, are you
kidding me? Did he? Is it Stan Musial? Yeah.
I mean, they played against the New York Giants,
the Brooklyn Dodgers, those guys. The Ted Williams
at a National League? They played at a National
League team. They played a bunch of games against
them. Brooklyn, yeah, I mean it was... Nice job
by me. That was impressive. You'd almost think
we set these up or else maybe we just know too
much stupid stuff. Don Father, great question.
Wow. You gotta bring better than that, dude.
Johnny Damon, we've actually discussed him just
real quick and around. No, out. As a Sox fan,
I still say out. I mean, as a Sox fan, why do
you guys dislike him? Because he went to the
Yankees. So you don't like Clemens and Boggs?
He helps you guys break a long curse. He loved
Boggs. He went to the Yankees. But you love Boggs?
I love Boggs. I love Boggsies. You can't drink
126 beers in an airplane. You're not like the
guy. That's garbage. There's no way I believe
that. Andre the Giant, 6 hours did that by the
way. That's 10 gallons of beer by the way. You
do the math, that's 10 gallons of beer. We don't
do math on this podcast. Yeah, teacher by day.
Johnny Damon. He's got over 2 ,700 hits. I didn't
see, honestly I didn't realize you had over that
many hits to be honest with you. And he still
doesn't make it. Has anybody with 3 ,000 hits
not gotten in? No. That's an automatic. Here's
a question for you, too. If Stanton gets to 500
home runs and he's only like 40 away, is he in?
Well, is that an automatic? Everybody else that's
hit 500 is in. I'm going to tell you something.
I boasted that to some people that just teased
me about the Yankees, and I don't love them.
But if he hits 500 home runs... After getting
hit in the face and taking half a year off for
the last five years? Yeah, he's in the Hall of
Fame. I'll go with you over with that. Will that
be next year? Seven years, I think he's taking
half the year. Calm down, calm down. Nobody wants
to hear all this Yankee talk. But while we're
on it, Bobby Abreu. No. Never a dominant player.
No. At no point did you say, well, you know,
that guy's great. You always said, hey, he's
in the Hall of Pretty Good. Yeah, OK. He'd be
phenomenal right now. Yep. Yep. And Carlos Beltran.
Yes. Yes. But I think he might have... Did he
get the steroid thing? No, what did he get in
trouble for? No, he didn't fail anything, but
he obviously got suspended from being part of
the Astro thing. He was cheating. And he lasted
as the match manager for 45 days in the offseason.
So you can cheat that way, you just can't cheat
by taking steroids. Is this right? Exactly. Exactly.
Okay. Angry. We're not going to try to answer
right now unless we got one on the tip of our
tongue, but... You mentioned having a great UConn
trivia question. So we're going to shift gears
to some UConn stuff. I got several. Alright.
In honor of Alex Karaban, who could break several
records this year, and being one of the few guys
that actually plays four years at one institution
now, he is within 30 -something games of breaking
the all -time record for games played at the
University of Connecticut. Do you guys know who
holds that distinction? Most games played at
the University of Connecticut men's basketball
program. Caravan came into this season with 111.
He's 28 games played to break the record. Jake
Vasco? No, but that's a hell of a guess Don Fowler.
T. Knight played four years. No, a little more
recent. You have an up already? Two time national
champion. Ricky Moore? Oh, Shabazz. Shabazz Napier.
Really? With 143 games played. So, Caraban also
has 110 career starts. He's 25 away from breaking
the record going into the season. Now he's got
four starts, so I guess he's a little closer.
Who holds the record for most games started?
And then there's not Shabazz Napier. Most games
started. Talik Brown. No, that's a hell of a
guess, but he was on the first national championship
team. Oh, Freeman. No, that's another great guess.
Tate George? Tate George was not on that team.
He wasn't on that team, buddy. You're like 20
years old. He was a big guy. He had blonde hair.
Vasco, like you said. Jake Vasco, 135. No, you
go down to the left there, champ. Oh, look at
this. How about this? What's up, buddy? How are
you? Most games won. Alex Kierbren has 92 games
won in his career at UConn. If the Yankees, if
the Huskies win 24 games this year, which if
they don't, it'll be a disappointment. Who has
won the most games in the University of Connecticut
uniform? And it is not a... Have we said the
name yet? No. And it's not a guy that you think...
Wes Balasuknia. No. Corny Thompson. Recent guy.
Recent recent? Recent recent. This century? Alright.
Yes, as in the last few years. Oh. They've been
pretty good lately. You guys haven't paid attention.
Yeah, but guys don't stay. Right, that's what
I'm trying to... Correct. Four -year player.
Was Sanogo four? No, he was three. He was a backup
to those guys though. Kevin might know, he's
a Yukon guy. A back up to those guys? I thought
you said start it. Most games won as a men's
basketball. Murray Conments. No. Who was it?
Sampson Johnson. 115 wins. He played four years?
115 wins. He just signed somewhere, didn't he?
Here's another one. The Caravan. Oh, G -League,
yeah. Alex Caravan can break. The record for
most Connors. Connors, Connors, what? Betts?
The most three -pointers in the University of
Connecticut history is 276. By this individual,
Alex Carabane has 215 coming into the season.
He needs to drain. 62 -3 is coming into this
year. I don't know how many he has correct right
now. I gotta say Rashad Anderson. That'd be correct.
276. Nice job, Max. Nice job. You'd almost think
it was a setup. You'd almost think he went to
UConn. If Carabane takes 167 three -pointers
this season. He will also break the career record
held by this guy, and it is not Rashad Anderson.
For three -point attempts. I would have never
got this one myself. It was during the lull.
So, and Ali... Vital? Yes, sir! Nicely done.
Can you tell I hate you? Nicely done. All right.
All right, so we're... Christian Vital is the
only guy I've ever seen try to quiet the home
crowd. Johnny Unitas and Ryan Fitzpatrick in
tonight's attendance. Yeah, we should try to
get one of them on the pod after this. They are
all -timers. So the school record for most tournament
games played, most NCAA tournament games played
at the University of Connecticut is 15 Alice
Caraban. If he plays in two this year, breaks
the record, one he ties it. 15? Chavez? No. Tournament
games. So Chabazz, I mean he's, oh no, were they
suspended? He just said it. We just got it before.
Chabazz? No. Sanogo? No. Not Ricky Moore. Oh,
Rashad? Samson Johnson. Oh Jesus, come on. He
also holds the tournament record for wins. Caravan
and Samson Johnson with 13. We'll skip that.
This is an easy one. Got three more, real quick
ones. Most points at the University of Connecticut
is held by? Carabanesca got really hot to break
this record. He needs 793 points. He's probably
not gonna do it. Who holds the record at 21 .45?
Points? Ray? No. Rip? No. Mecca? No. Those guys
all played three years. This guy played four.
That's the difference? Shabazz? No. Damn. Tate
George? No. That arrow though. Can I get home?
Can I get home? Chris Smith? Chris Smith. 21
-45. He's the leading scorer of all time. Shame
on any of us for not knowing that. That's terrible.
Alright, this one is pretty safe. Alex Kariband
has 112 career blocks. If he blocks over 300
shots this year, he'll be in second place. Who
is the all -time leader in block shots at Uncon?
Emeka. Emeka. And here's the last tough one.
Okay, we have... Oh, you got another guy in here.
Ronnie Davis. There is one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight guys at the University
of Connecticut in their history to have won two
national championships. Can you name the eight
guys? Will Shabazz, correct. Klingen, correct.
Caravan, correct. Newton, correct. Johnson, correct.
There's another guy from last year, or two years
ago. He played last year too. Not Samson? He
already said Samson Johnson. Backup point guard?
I forget already. But no. Backup point guard.
For Newton. I don't remember who it was. Hassan
D 'Ariere. So there's two guys. There's two guys.
One guy, one... Both guys won a title with Calhoun
and one with Ali. German guy made three pointers
in the corner. Oh, Niles. Niles Giffey. And the
other guy was a Connecticut guy also. Biggie.
Big guy. Last name starts with an O. Oh, yeah,
yeah. Up there at E .O. Smith. Olander. Tyler
Olander. Correct. That is our UConn trivia. How
are you, man? Good to see you. Stepping to the
mic right now is Bristol Eastern Principal Michael
Higgins. Principal Higgins, we're only going
to take you for like two minutes here. I know
you got work to do. How we doing? We're doing
great. Love the setup. Good to see you, Higgy.
It's a nice new addition. Love it. Are you here
supporting anybody specifically or are you here
just because you're a part of this community?
Love the whole thing, love the history. Gotta
give a shout out to Archie and Lish tonight though
as guys that I know personally for a long time.
What I love hearing the stories from the past,
all the great traditions that come through here.
What's the best concert you were at this summer?
A little number down in New Haven that I went
to with some friends. Who was the main event?
A little bit of Cypress Hill. You could just
kill a man. Sometimes you gotta. Just real quick,
we'll let you go. How important is sports for
your students at Bristol -Easter? It's massive,
man. Scholar -athletes are one of the backbones
of the school. School spirit, competitiveness,
the life lessons, the collaboration, the communication.
It's an essential piece for hundreds of kids
in our building. Love it. Higgie, your daughter
was a scholar -athlete at Bristol Central, obviously
your rival. Yes, sir. with a bunch of Rams. Does
it mean something for these kids to be named
a scour athlete? Bristol Sports Hall of Fame
has their event every year for scour athletes.
For parents, I know it would mean something,
but for kids, does it carry any weight? It does.
It's huge. I think that they take with them.
My daughter, for example, a lot of these kids
come out of Bristol and they go to other places.
And they take that with them as a badge of honor.
I think it means a lot to them. It's part of
tradition, you know. Bristol has a long -standing
athletic tradition, one of the best in the state,
and that's another important emblem of that.
Peggy, when you step away from this microphone,
we're nominating you for Administrator of the
Year. I love it. I love it. We're going to put
it in motion. Love to wreck the mic with you
guys. Hold on, Angry Jack, one question for you.
Yes, sir. Give you a shout out to some of your
coaches. Who are some outstanding coaches that
you have at Bristol Eastern right now? They're
all fantastic. I go back with a lot of them.
You know, I've had Coach A .J. Julius is a former
student of mine. Coach Bunchy Ray is a long -standing
friend of mine. I've known him since I'm about
eight years old. I'll end up missing important
people but they're all an outstanding coaching
staff. I'm proud to say that many, many of them
are Bristol folks and even Eastern folks and
they like to come back so it's always awesome.
But we have a really great staff of coaches that
work with our kids. Final question, who's the
best athlete since you've been at Bristol Eastern
to ever come out of Bristol Eastern? Best athlete
to ever come out of Bristol Eastern? Man. It's
hard to say. How long have you been at Bristol
Eastern, first of all? I've been there for a
total of 22 years. And the funnest person I watched
was actually when I was still in high school,
and it was Ronaldo Soto. He was a beast. Oh,
yeah. He was a beast carrying the football, man.
But there's been too many great ones since I've
been there. Hard to pick one. He's allowing his
son to wear maroon, though. What do you think
about that? I know. I know. Hey, listen, like
I said, a lot of maroon in the house. It's difficult
sometimes, but I've got to embrace it. Principal
Higgins, thanks for stopping by, buddy. Thanks,
guys. Hold on, cracker. I gotta ask Mike, you
know it's coming. What's the prediction on the
Thanksgiving Day game? I said this the other
night to Bob Fiorito. It's like that movie, you
know, or the old saying, Any Given Sunday. The
records go out the window on Thursday, on Turkey
Day. I love Eastern, baby. Let's go. We need
that bell. We need that bell back in the building.
Principal Higgins, thanks for stopping by. Thanks,
Higgins. Boy, what a treat. What a guy. Getting
back to some sports banter. Angry Jay, were we
done or no? Did you have one more, right? No,
you got it. You got the tough one was the eight
guys that won two national championships and
you guys pulled it off. Bobby did. Nah, well,
with a little help. From you. Yeah. You want
one more? Yeah, one more. Let's go. Caravan has
an 84 % free throw percentage. I think he somehow
bumped it up over 93%. Who holds the record for
most, for best free throw percentage in UConn
history? Era. Ray Allen? I'll give you this.
It's 75 attempts, so it's a one -year guy. And
it's really recent. Newton? No. Hawkins? Close.
That era. The second of two. Oh, Cam. Cam Spencer,
91%. I should have known. I should have known.
He's actually doing fairly well with the Memphis
Phillies, by the way. Yeah, he's crushing it,
man. He can shoot it. Apparently, he found his
stroke right after he left Jersey. What's up,
buddy? How you doing? Great arm in Raponi. Hey,
Max, speaking of Huskies, did we all watch the
UConn Arizona game the other night? I did. You
guys want a quick Arizona story? Yeah. So the
University of Arizona obviously played UConn
on Wednesday. They called Eastern Connecticut
State University over the weekend asking if they
can hold a practice at Eastern Connecticut. Oh,
that's awesome. On Tuesday. And we said absolutely.
Any time after. 230 they could have it because
we had an away game the women had an away game
and they said they had a practice between one
and three and we said well the gym is not available
to 230 but you could have it anytime after that
so they were disgruntled I made the suggestion
if they didn't like it they could practice outside
because we have outdoor courts yeah they didn't
take me up on it and they did not respond after
we told them they could have it after 230 just
sulked away and they found another gym really
yeah West Coast. They're not on the shit list.
Anytime they play, I'm not rooting for them.
It doesn't take much. It would have been neat
to have Bryce James in the gym now. Yeah, he
could have. He could have came at 2 .30. That
is a great nugget right there, Angry. I guess
a ton of Husky student fans were kicked out the
other night because of You know, they're having
fun with Brycey there. I can remember being a
heckler at that age. I never did anything like
that. I never did anything like that. Donovan
Klingon's uncle in the house here. Just saw him
in Miami a couple weeks ago. Yeah, so that game.
I want to know what you guys think about this.
Last year Hurley gets knocked off in a tournament
or whatever he goes. I'll never go back to another
tournament. So he does They bring in or you know
ranked opponent to ranked teams going at it they
lose that home in their backyard not in Hartford
and You think maybe he doesn't cry about this
when he got what he wanted because you don't
win every all the time. You don't win Sometimes
you know somebody's losing that game, but he
had to cry He had to cry and complain that they
got they leave the country and this and that
Sprains or whatever he said like does he have
to bitch and moan all the time? Or can he just
stand up there and say we got beat we're moving
on he gave credit He gave Arizona credit. You
like this guy. I do early. Yeah, I can't stand
him He's the only team that has an injuries right
now ankles and knees and come on Just to let
the listeners know, if you hear the sounds like
the running of the bulls here, they did set us
next to the bar, and the patrons are rolling
in for this special event. So if you hear this
background noise, it's all the drunks trying
to get to this bar behind us. You've got to give
Mark credit. Mark set us up nice to start this
evening off. Now he's got to put up with these
guys. But getting back to that game. Pretty good
atmosphere. Is UConn back all the way? Is the
hysteria back or are we kind of spoiled? It hasn't
left. It hasn't left? I think it left. I think
it left with the Ali era. Oh no. Oh no, it's
back. It's back. Hold on, somebody's checking
in here. What table are you sitting at? I thought
he was scanning our bar, our QR code so we could
subscribe. Somebody's trying to check in here.
Like I said, they put us right near the bar where
you think you're gonna check in. Johnny United,
Ryan Fitzpatrick, now we're checking in. The
inductees have not made their way up yet, but...
That was one of the inductees. That was John
Greenleaf from Australia. It was not? It was
the brother -in -law of one of the inductees,
Brian Lishness. That was Phil Suzy, who's now
the head wrestling coach at Bristol Eastern.
Oh, really? So I think he would have loved it.
Most likely. Yeah, he gets no air time until
next year. We got to get him inducted. Doppelgangers
around here. Doppelgangers. What was it? Zero
chance. Oh, yeah. Moving right along. So Angry
J, say it's all the way back. It won two national
championships, dude. Like, what's going on? What
do you mean it's not back? And they're a top
five team this year. Jesus Christ. You know what
I'm saying? It's not back? College basketball,
really getting exciting here. You'd think that
the guys who are getting paid are going to, you
know, get the best of the little guys every night.
It's not really happening. Still college basketball.
But tonight, in New Brunswick, there's a heck
of a match -up. Jeffy's alma mater, CCSU taking
on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights after just bumping
off their first power five ever. Getting their
first power five victory. All right everybody,
we're gonna welcome Bryant Lishness to the mic
here. Bryant. Thanks for joining us. Bristle
boys, come on in. Congratulations on your induction
tonight. Congratulations, sir. Thank you, appreciate
it. So, are you still involved with Gladiator
to this day? Yeah, yeah. I'm there probably doing
more coaching now than I did when I was at Eastern.
Really? Yeah, we're there year round. Okay, and
it's Steve Beecher. He works closely with you
guys. Yes. He runs out of the club. Yep. What
can you say about Steve? We already had him on
tonight. What can you say about him and his support?
I think Steve's a Hall of Famer. I think he deserves
to be enshrined here. I really do. He was an
All -American in college. He was a great wrestler
at Eastern. He only came out for one year and
he placed in the States and then he parlayed
his football abilities to be an All -American
at Western and then... He's been doing the work
for a long time. So many kids down at the Boys
Club just dedicate themselves to those kids.
So I love Steve. I think Steve's someone that
they should be considering. I agree. I'm a transplant,
transplant Bristol guy, but I've worked with
him for a while. Love him. Going back to your
early days, who can you look back on and say
for some of your biggest sports influences from
this city? From this city, probably the top of
the list would be John Benoit. I'd consider him
the father of Bristol Eastern Wrestling. He was
my coach when I was a freshman, and then he stepped
back a little bit, but John never leaves. He
never leaves. I think he's turning 80 this year,
and he's still volunteering and coaching and
helping out. He was taking the photos here today.
He still comes down to the Boys and Girls Club
and helps out. So I'd say he's probably, I consider
him my coach and role model and mentor. Hey,
it seems like wrestling, and I might be wrong,
but it seems like it's not like a really big
on a really, lower level as far as youth goes.
But I know the gladiator program, you know, would
say otherwise. It seems like coming from a small
town, kids gravitate toward wrestling a little
later. You know it's funny because in our town
I think you know Bristol's a big sports town
and everyone you know really I think if you ask
people they say oh it's a it's a baseball town
and then we've had some great basketball players
and we've had some great football players and
volleyball etc there's there's been a lot of
good programs but you go outside of Bristol and
Bristol's considered a wrestling town. You get
Bristol Central, Bristol Eastern, the Gladiators,
walk into a gym and The gym kind of adjusts,
you know, you can feel the air go out a little
bit. There's a saying that you win matches at
weigh -ins sometimes, and when we'd walk into
a gym, you could see the kids, we'd walk in 60
deep to a program that has 20 kids on the roster,
and you could see forward. They were defeated
sometimes at Wayne's. How long has the Gladiators
been in existence, Brian? Since the 80s. I thought
it was 88 but Dennis Sigmund saying it was 85.
So I think what happened is you had Dennis Sigmund
and John Benoit who were the head coaches at
Central and Eastern. And they realized they needed
a solid feeder program. They wanted to be great.
So they started with kind of an in -house program,
an introductory program. And it quickly developed
into a travel team. And then it's grown by leaps
and bounds. You guys at Central put on an amazing
invitation. I think you do it together. Is that
right? No, no, no. Central hosts that by themselves.
They've been doing that for years. But I thought
that the JVs go over to Eastern, though. Yeah,
that was just something when I was coaching at
Eastern. My goal was always for my JV kids. Because
we had such a big program that I wanted my JV
kids to get as many matches as possible. So my
goal was always to get them 40 plus matches.
So we decided that was a good weekend to host
a JV event. Because we would partner with them
and take all the JV teams and the teams that
were going to the Central Tournament and bring
it to our place. This is a special night for
a number of you guys. Two wrestling guys going
in, you and Archie. Yeah, that's awesome. Let
me ask you a question. You guys throw on singlets
and go out and nap. It's funny Archie's I think
Archie might have been a freshman when I was
a senior I believe or he might have been a freshman
after I graduated I know my my training partner
who's probably my my biggest he's one of my best
friends Dave Thompson he's a he's a D1 wrestling
official now He wrestled Archie. He was a year
behind me, even though we're the same age. I
was one of those young seniors. We're only a
couple weeks apart. But anyways, Dave had another
year on me, so he got to wrestle Archie twice.
And probably wasn't fair. Dave's a senior captain.
Archie's a freshman, even though he was a stud
wrestler, 100%. Dave got him? Yeah, Dave beat
him twice that year. Did he? Oh, we need Archie
over here. I bet you Archie can strike both of
you guys out though, is that true? I'm sorry,
say again? I say the Gladiators feeds into Eastern
and Central, right? Oh yeah. So is there any
Friday night lights moving mailboxes to make
sure they go to certain programs? No, none of
that. Believe it or not, there's some towns that
you can do that. Like I've heard Meriden, you
can basically pick what school you want to go
to, whenever you want to go. You can switch mid
-year, all that stuff. But for Bristol, they're
real strict with it. But it's interesting, it's
fun. I'm really excited that Archie's going in
too because a lot of the wrestling people...
I mean, as I said, outside of Bristol, we're
considered a wrestling town. We can go anywhere
and people know who we are. We've traveled the
country and people know who the Gladiators are
and we've had a lot of success. So with Archie
getting in tonight, there's a whole bunch of
central people here, but a lot of those kids
came up through the Gladiators, so it's really
cool. I've seen a whole bunch of them, the parents,
the kids, they've all come up. Well, not kids
anymore, they're all adults, saying congratulations,
so it's really special. It's pretty cool. gladiator
program. When do you guys try to break the kids
in? At what age? We start pretty young. We have
some kids as young as four or five starting with
us. How about six, seven? Swing and a miss by
me there. I say that all the time and I'm doing
my speeches to the little kids. It's so funny.
I'm like, we'll do six or seven. Six, seven.
Six, seven. They go bananas. So yeah, we do that
quite a bit. So obviously your record is incredible.
There's got to be one guy. That you wrestled.
That was a pain in the ass. That was... that
gave you big problems. Who was it? Me personally,
I'm a much better coach than I was a wrestler.
I was a decent wrestler. My claim to fame is
I was like all conference and I won the Central
Tournament but I didn't have the accolades that
like Archie's accolades as an athlete are much
better than mine. Alright, they gave me a program
that was as a coach because your record through
19 to 41 is who was the biggest challenge? I
would say For us, I don't think I ever was able
to beat New Milford. New Milford's coach is Chris
Peel, one of my closest friends in wrestling.
We beat him in tournaments, but head to head,
we only matched up two or three times, and they
caught us every time. So that was the tough one
for me, but I mean Chris Peele is a Hall of Famer
for Connecticut. He's one of my favorite guys
in wrestling. I'm really close to him. We still
talk, even though I'm not in high school ranks.
We still talk and communicate. He's the guy.
Loudon Swain or Shoop? Loudon. Yeah, I love the
overachievers. I love the overachievers. All
right, since he's breaking it out. I love that
movie. Do you remember what they wrestled at?
What was the weight? I got everybody on this.
I think he dropped down, well the weights change
every single year, but he dropped down to like
the 165, 167 range. 168. Okay, yeah. I'll get
the hang of it. Partial money now. 160s. Brian,
thanks for stopping by and sincere congratulations.
Congratulations. Enjoy your night. Thank you.
Appreciate it, you guys. All right, after a brief
intermission, we're back. Being joined by really
the only person I knew in this class, Brian Archibald.
Brian, welcome to the Bristle Boys, and congratulations
on your honor this evening. Thanks, guys. Real
quick, we're going to get into some of your accomplishments,
but you were a fantastic wrestler and wrestling
coach. You also played professional baseball
and had quite a baseball path. Can you tell me
if your experiences in a one -on -one combative
type of situation as wrestling helped you when
you towed the rug to go one -on -one with batters,
with hitters? Absolutely. You know, pitching
is absolutely a one -on -one kind of portion
of the game of baseball. It's a chess match to
an extent. You try and exploit the other person's
weaknesses and they try and do the same thing.
It's just like wrestling. It's the same move.
I wasn't a guy who danced around a whole lot.
I kind of was like, all right, man, here you
go. This is what I got. On a mat or on a mount?
A little bit of both. A little bit of both. Well,
angry Jay and I have faced you, so we know that
you weren't messing around. Yeah, I mean, you
know what? I'd like to kick the door down rather
than kind of knock and see what's going on. I
love it, man. That's cool. All right. We always
put, you know, ask people questions they don't
want to answer. But let's just say hypothetically,
you're going to some deserted island or some
afterlife and you can only play one of those
two sports for the rest of time. Which one are
you picking? You want to play baseball or do
you want to want to wrestle? I want to wrestle.
I love it. I want to wrestle. How about as a
coach, would you rather coach wrestling or baseball?
I'd rather coach wrestling. Okay. There's too
much stuff going on with baseball. Like there's
a lot, like I got to deal with nine dudes and
nine different things happening with baseball
and that's a lot going on man. I really like
to focus in and pay attention on one thing that's
going on and I can really give that specific
athlete everything I got right and on the baseball
diamond you really got it that's why I think
baseball coaches are some of the best coaches
period because they got to split themselves up
around nine different places and and then still
deal with with with the other half of the side
right like whether you were hitting the number
and then we're defending man and honestly man
the sheer aspect of the physicality of wrestling.
Man, it's me and that other dude. Or my guy against
the other guy's guy. That's my jam. You make
it personal. Yeah, it is personal. And that's
wrestling, man. It's personal. And so is baseball,
right? Like, I mean, you know, we played against
and whatever else to know that it's personal.
But as far as coaching, Baseball spreads that
head coach out so much. There's so many moving
parts, so many different scenarios, and there
are in wrestling too, but baseball's a special
thing. What did you wrestle at? What weight?
I wrestled at 160 for three years, and 152 as
a freshman. So were you one of those crazy guys
that got up to like 170, 180, then dropped 20
pounds for the 8 sweatshirt sedans? He's asking
if you were a while in the swing in high school.
I'm sorry for asking you. No, I went off your
Bryant's shoe, actually, because he was better.
Yeah, I looked like Bryant, like Loudon Swain.
I played soccer my senior year. That was my senior
year was the toughest one. But my senior year
I played soccer at 185. Wow. And you wrestled
that? at 160, yeah. Things are different then.
Wrestling, thank God, has evolved just like everything
else, and that kind of thing isn't happening
as much at the high school level, for sure. Brian,
you have a pretty impressive resume here. You
have probably the longest bio of anybody. What
on here are you most proud of that you've done?
Any sport? Anything in your bio? You can read
it if you want. I don't know that there's one
specific thing that I'm most proud of. I think
the coaching aspect would separate. The coaching
aspect, where it's not about me. Kids believing
in what we're saying. being okay with doing the
things that we're asked to do, and the coaching
piece, absolutely. The playing and the athlete
part, man, you know, Frankie, you know, I don't
know, I just did the thing. I just, I believed
in the coaches I had, and I don't know, they
told me to do something, I did it, and then when
they told me it wasn't good enough, I did it
again. And better. I would have said striking
these guys out, but you're going the other way.
Listen, striking me out wasn't a great accomplishment.
That could be high on his list. Archie threw
Hargo. He didn't want to get in there. Well,
there's the wrestling piece, right? Absolutely,
like you said, the wrestling piece shaped all
of my athletics in a lot of my life. in life
and whatever, there's times when you gotta be
like, yeah, all right, dude, no, this is what's
gonna happen. I love it, I love it. So if you
enlist us today, after your speeches, go a couple
rounds on the mat, who comes out on the mat?
He already gave us his answer. I know, yeah.
First of all, I don't know if it would go a couple
rounds. Ooh! Number one. I think the two of us
both, it's like that country song. I'm good once
as good as I ever was, right? Listen, I'm younger
than him, right? I don't know. How many seconds?
He said you would win. He said he was a better
coach than a wrestler. Listen, I'm younger than
him, so him as a wrestler... I don't know. He's
certainly a better coach than me, man. He's got
three titles, right? Bobby brought the uniform,
so we'll figure that out when we're done, you
know? Yeah, we're doing it afterward. There's
been a lot of conversation for a while about
the fact that him and I are in together, and
there's a lot of stuff going on here tonight.
Archie, as a lifelong Ram, what are your feelings
on the Lancers? You don't have to answer that.
I think that... They're always competitive. Whoa.
Alright, alright. Would you ever put the blue
on? Listen, let me ask you this. The blue? Would
I put the blue? Listen, I gotta tell you right
now, my wife, just so you know where I come from
and what my life has been like. My wife yesterday
was out shopping for a new shirt or new clothes
or whatever. She called me. She goes, hey, I
found this great shirt, but it's blue. I go,
it's all right, honey. Like, whatever. Do you
like it? How's it look? Oh, it looks wonderful.
But just do it. Go for it. She was like, OK.
And tonight, when she was getting dressed, I
said, where's that blue shirt? She goes, I couldn't
do it. So maybe that... That sums it up. That
answers the question. Go Rams? Hey, man. Maroon
and white. Archie. Happy for you. This is well
deserved. There's other things you've done, the
cycling and all that kind of stuff. You're a
man of many interests. And as far as the wrestling
and baseball goes, We actually know about a very
deserving honor. Hope you have a great night.
Do not speak longer than Bunty Ray spoke last
year, please. So it's funny you say that. I don't
think I'll be as long as Bunty. They're telling
us five minutes. I said, Hey man, that's ridiculous.
We wrestled for six. There you go. There you
go. So we'll see what happens. But I'm last.
So about the one extra inning. So yeah. Well,
he never pitched. Right. I like being a closer.
So we'll try and throw some strikes. I love it,
man. Congrats, buddy. Thank you very much. Have
a great night. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Congrats, man. I love it, man. One thing I don't
get about this town, and maybe I'm never supposed
to get it, and Angry Jay, I really want you to
hear this. Like, these guys that are Rams or
Lancers, not to mention St. Paul, They don't
get over it, no matter what age they are. He's
still wearing a maroon shirt. No, they don't
get over it. He's wearing a maroon shirt. The
school colors for his introduction. They don't
get over it. I partly love it, but I also don't
understand it, because we came from a postage
stamp, you know? Yeah. That's hilarious, though.
And it's over 30 years later, and he's talking
about not letting his wife wear a blue shirt.
Archie's back for the photo, photo op. I want
to welcome in the next guest Hall of Fame inductee
Andy Freemuth. When I hear that name I think
Plainville. Is that your father? Yeah, it's great
to be with you guys here. We have my father,
Bob Freeman, longtime coach, playing ball high
school. Yeah, and won a few state championships,
right? Yeah, won a few state championships. That's
crazy. Grew up watching those teams, you know,
spending a lot of time at the practice field
with them, so. Great place to be, great place
to raise a kid. High school sports fields and
courts or whatever. As I did that with mine and
they seemed to be really addicted to athletics
which is great. Became friends with a lot of
those guys that were on his teams. That's cool.
You know they looked after me and some of them
were close in my age and you know it was a great
experience. Did you go to the Plainville baseball
camp that they? Spent a lot of years there. That's
still a good one. Yeah my dad dragged me around
to every camp. the Hololized Fundamental Baseball
Camp? I went to it. Yeah. I'm way older than
you, but I went to that. You'll probably hear
a little bit of that later on when I get to address
the crowd. Coach Jones from Plainville. Yeah.
Coach Jones. Hey, let's get back to Bristol.
Coach Greg Ziogas. Oh yeah. Let's get back to
Bristol real quick. The reason you're here going
into the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame. What besides
your father in Bristol will you look back on
and say, that person influenced me or I'm this
way because this is how it was in Bristol. What
is it about Bristol and the people that have
influenced you? Yeah, I was fortunate enough
to have a lot of great coaches all of all the
way through played all the sports Baseball obviously
was my number one sport but the amount of time
that the folks in Bristol gave up to look after
You know young athletes all the way through So
many of them touched me in so many different
ways. So I think that's that's the key that the
The folks who coached in Bristol, I think made
an impact on kids, especially me. Talk to me
about your experience at Trinity Trinity is an
amazing place. Played for Coach Bill Decker there.
Oh, a legend, right? Absolute legend. You know,
he was a younger guy at the time that I was there.
Never really realized how close in age he was
until after the fact, but a great guy taught
me a lot about life, a lot about baseball, and
met some of my best friends there, all on the
baseball team. And Trinity is a great school,
so the education was fantastic as well. You stay
on campus. Yeah, couldn't imagine a better experience.
No concerns or regrets about going there. That's
awesome. Yeah. One more minute. Are you still
involved in sports today, coaching or anything?
So I'm really just playing golf today. Not too
much involved. I coached my kids when they were
growing up, but my son's a senior in high school
now. My daughter is a sophomore. So I'm sort
of out of the coaching at this point, leaving
that up to their high school and their club coaches.
But certainly was involved early on with them.
And they both really took the sports and athletics,
which is great. So now I just kind of sit back
and watch them. You were being chased out of
here. What was it like to play in that game at
Fenway all -star game? Fenway Park was amazing.
I was just talking to somebody about that. Just
being in the locker room, being in the dugout,
being in the presence of the green monster. It
was awesome. How'd you do in BP? You got close
in BP? Yeah, they didn't let us take BP on the
field. Oh, get out! No, we had to hit it in the
cage. But taking infield was amazing. And I know
we're getting rushed out of here. But the crazy
thing about Fenway is that at the time it was
very crowned. And I was playing shortstop. So
taking ground balls and trying to throw the ball
the first base, you actually had to aim for the
guy's first baseman's knees in order to hit him
in the chest. Get out of here. First throw, you're
trying to hit him in the chest. And you fire
it over there just because of the crown. But
awesome experience. Yeah. We're getting a hook
and he's got to get back in there. He's an important
man tonight I could talk to you guys all night.
Oh, yeah fun. Well, you know what? We're gonna
have you for a whole episode one day I could
tell you got a lot to talk. Yeah, that sounds
great. I'd love to let's go. Thank you Congratulations.
Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Have a great night.
Don't be bristly in there. Yep How about Bob
Callett? Are you being rushed in there, too?
We need you for two minutes, Mr. Callett. Come
on. Come on. We need you for two minutes. Are
we live, Kevin? Guys, we're back after a brief
intermission. For the man who made this possible,
Bob Callett. Are you president? President. President
of the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame committee.
You guys put on a heck of a night tonight. I
was at last year's and I went to the dinner you
had here in between those two awesome events.
But thanks for having us here and just talk to
me a little bit about why you got involved in
this. Well, yeah. I had a friend of mine that
told me that he went to a dinner 28 years ago,
Hall of Fame dinner, and I didn't know anything
about it. And I said to myself, that's something
I'd like to get involved in. So the following
year I contacted Bob Montgomery and the rest
is history. I've been involved for the last 28
years, served as vice president and president,
and I'm just involved in about every single aspect
of it. I just wanted to say that I'm very proud
to be president of the Hall of Fame. As you know,
we have these speakers programs. I don't think
there's another Hall of Fame in the state of
Connecticut that does everything that the Bristol
Sports Hall of Fame does. With the scholarships
we give out, with our scholar -athlete dinner,
with our leadership programs. Very, very, very
proud to be involved with it. That's all I can
say. Well, you should be. And then the function
I came to this past winter, you know, people
came here to take a picture with 7 -foot -2 Donovan
Klingon, who did a heck of a job speaking. But
maybe... the overlooked speaker that night, one,
is a huge contributor to what you guys are doing,
and two, had a tremendous story. And Donovan's
and his story and our guest tonight, all their
stories go back to what they were taught along
the way on the baseball diamonds and courts and
boys and girls clubs of Bristol. Can you speak
about how proud you are to be a citizen of Bristol?
Yeah, I've been a citizen of Bristol my whole
life. I was involved with the forceful Little
League. for 20 years as a treasurer. I was in
the beginning of the Eastern Region Little League.
I was there in the beginning when they started.
I was a 30 -year volunteer. I served as an uncle.
I served as a director of stream relations. I
handled the finances for two years. So I've always
felt it's better to give than to receive. And
my wife has been right. Beside me all the way.
I'm very, you know, proud of that fact. She you
saw here tonight. She's working registration
She's not a director, but even for the golf tournament
she comes and she sells raffle tickets and So
she's you know, she's right there for everything.
So we're a partner. We just celebrated our 50
-50 anniversary We won't hold Kevin against you
either but no Mr. Callett Did you bring my dad
to one of those dinners? I do miss your dad.
You know, your dad used to play in our golf tournament
with us every year. Billy Ryan and your dad.
Oh my God. We, you know, we thoroughly enjoyed
playing with Sleeper, I'll tell you. So, you're
Bristol born and bred, but can you tell everybody
what your real favorite high school is of all
time? Well, I guess it would have to be Thomason
High School. I graduated from Bristol Easton
in 67 and Kevin teaches at Central. I was a teacher
at Thomason High School for 35 years. A lot of
good memories in Thomason. I know you taught
the shop. What did you teach? I was a tech ed
teacher. How many people lost limbs under your
watch? None of them. Let's go. I really have
to go. That's why he's taking all the time. Mr.
Callett, the president. President Callett. Four
more years. Welcoming in our last guest of the
evening. We always save the best for last. Save
the best for last. Coach Bunty Ray. You hate
to label Bunty Ray as a coach because before
that he had a heck of a resume as a player. But
coaching nearly 70 seasons among over three sports.
Over three sports or three sports? Across three
sports. I meant you want to get. Are we really
going to go there? It's been a long night. I
just know after coaching two sports for just
a few years it is a grind. Every season is a
grind and to do all three and then have you know
a life beyond that is difficult. So Coach Bunty
Ray is here to join us and this guy has put in
his time on the court, on the fields. And as
Archie said, coaching baseball is, you know,
a thousand times more difficult than most sports.
I mean, when he was saying I was thinking football,
but he got all these minions running around.
Baseball, you're running the show. So welcome
Coach Bunty Ray. Last year, 2024 Hall of Fame
inductee, Coach Bunty Ray. Hey, thanks for having
me. Before you start, Bunty, we're just going
to tell you that this segment is brought to you
by one of our biggest sponsors, Vice President
of Capitalist Securities, Senior Vice President,
Joe Moriello, alive. It's a good thing because
he has all my money. Bunty, last year you knocked
it out of the park with your speech. These guys
have got a tough act to follow this year, but
they're going to tell their own story. My speech
was way too long, Bob, I can tell you that right
now, but I had to thank the room because that's
what Bristol is. There's so many people and there's
so many, when I'm walking through even the line
for the cocktail hour and this and that, it's
just such a special place. And a lot of people,
their kids have gone through here, the coaches,
the history of this place is just outstanding.
So as far as that kind of lineage and tradition,
when you were going through it, and you look
back today, who were those people, aside from
family, that influenced you most? Oh, it would
be all my coaches. It would be Jim Ziogas, Legion
coach. It would be Mike Givinazzo, Bill Sweet,
57 years. 57 years, I'm still coaching with him.
Mike Givinazzo. 600 wins, it's, you know what,
Speck Monaco, it's just all of them. I just had,
I was fortunate to have a lot of great coaches
that were just great people. You know, Tom Moylan.
Longevity is lost upon a lot of things that happen
now, right? Everybody wants to win now. I'm more
impressed with the guys that stick it out. They
stick out the tough seasons, they stick out the
great seasons, and they're consistent. So to
me, when you walk down that room, and then when
you sit there and you're watching kids, that
now come back to honor these people I think that's
the most important. Well last year you had a
ton of former players here. But to get a question
I know you've coached your kids forever and obviously
we all coach our kids and they were you know
eighth grade seventh grade but you've coached
now in high school against your son and you've
coached your son correct? So what's harder coaching
against your son or coaching yourself? I'll tell
you this year it might get a few more minutes
this year you know but you know what to me We
go home, sports are what they are. You know,
we talk about sports and the competition. I think
it's a great story. So stories are stories. Sports
are the vehicle for everything. It's going to
be one day we're going to sit. We're going to
have a conversation about how he felt about it,
not me. I just went and just did my job. You
know, and he knows that he sat in. My kids are
funny. When they went to high school, they threw
away all their Eastern stuff. But when they were
younger, they had a lot of Eastern stuff. You
won't catch them in blue anymore. If Jackson
scores against you, when you guys play a month
or whatever it is, are you going to be happier?
Yeah, I don't know yet I'll tell you I'll be
on the next podcast if we're up 20 and he scores
I'll be happy if it's a close game and he scores
and I don't know but I'll be proud of him either
way I'm proud of all the kids in Bristol, you
know I mean like I haven't been I have a unique
situation where I get to see him in class you
pull for those kids and when you're competing
you're competing and that's that's what it is
I don't know anybody that's ever competed I could
see this table right now and I was at a game
with Harlow and I was probably I don't know.
40 years old and he was yelling at me in a timeout
in an over 40 game. I was just filling in and
Bob actually he's like he brought me up there
and Bob didn't even he's like he had to stay
home and I went up to Thomaston in that game
and Harlow basically said hey listen we got to
do that. I said wow I better toe the line. Competition
is competition. I appreciate him. That's why
he's a college coach. He's successful. There's
no one there that's not and Bob is about as successful
as he gets. Same thing with Mikey McMahon last
year, you know? I mean, he's my guy in baseball,
and then I'm coaching against him, and you know
what? It's a hug at the end of the day. You've
got unbelievable stories as far as playing both
sides of this rivalry. And we talked before,
as an out of town or coming from a small town,
I don't get the fact that the three schools hate
each other so much. And I'm talking about the
blue bloods of those three schools. Now, you
have gone, you grew up a Lancer. teach as a Ram,
coach two sports back as a Lancer, but your passion
baseball you coach for the Ram. In other words,
you're all over the place. So how do you feel
about these people that just can't see across
the line? My story goes back to youth. So I grew
up in the parks in this town. I grew up in the
boys club. I grew up in the things that made
us who we are. So I have an old soul. But no,
I see it. I think they get it, too. I think the
kids are more respectful than you think. I think
they understand each other now. Well, before,
back in the day, we had the Boulevard, we had
Northeast. I didn't even know threes. three streets
across the town I didn't even know I didn't even
cross there was a Farmington Avenue was like
the you know it was like a bis you couldn't you
couldn't walk by it but you don't want to be
honest with you the respect I mean Archie and
I were adversaries he's getting in tonight and
I'm so proud of him and I played Against them
and I think it's just great. It's unique and
when you say small town this and that I don't
know I think you guys have the same thing I mean
you had your rivalries you understand and I seen
you guys compete and I know how you guys compete
I think you guys would have done the same the
difference for me is you go where their opportunity
is You know me you're trying to break in as a
coach and you know my my coaches were Eastern,
so they had me as an assistant. I had an opportunity
as a head coach in baseball, but you want to
know something? I never saw it that way. I always
thought just helping Bristol was what we were
at. And a night like this shows it. You can see
the energy in the room in terms of that. The
unique part about tonight is you got this wrestling,
Eastern Central wrestling. Oh, man, I was surprised
they didn't do weigh -ins at five o 'clock. Who
says they didn't? The 103s aren't 103s anymore.
I tell you, 20 years ago, they might be around
190 by now. I gotta ask you Sponti, you're coaching
all these sports, is there one you like the best?
Whatever one I'm winning in. Whatever one you're
winning in. Yeah, no, no, you know what? At the
end of the day, I would have said that. That's
a bad answer 20 years ago. I don't know. I just
went and saw a couple of my former players play.
You know, what we do, and I think you guys realize
as you get older, you know, 10 years from now,
you want to just see them get better. I don't
know if we even coach in the moment when we were
young. We're trying to get credibility. We're
trying to do this. But now, when I hear a story
about the 15th man on my bench that's doing really
well and you're talking about soccer and basketball
and baseball, you just want to see the kids do
well. I think that's where you can actually breathe.
When you finally get older and you kind of sit
there and you you know what sports are about,
I think that's the most important thing. When
you're competing, obviously, I'm not gonna lie
to you, we're trying to win. But afterwards,
that story that you hear from a kid, I just heard
a story about a kid that played three innings
for me the other day. I went to a wake and his
father was sitting in the parking lot and he
told me, he says, my kid is graduating from the
Marines. And I said, wow, I could talk about
his three innings. No, we don't remember it.
But the kids, he struggled. And you know what?
That struggle is real and that's what sports
are. So for me, that's where I am now. I wish
I was like that when I started, but that's how
you get here. I think we're all kind of like
that, too. I was a little more hot headed when
I when I first started. But you just see it differently
when you see it. There's some stories. Gun to
your head. I don't. If you only could coach one
sport. Superintendents tells you you're coaching
one. Well, I'm known as a baseball guy and everybody
thinks I'm a baseball guy But I sat in your living
room you convinced Bob McMahon convinced me to
take the basketball job and you know what to
be honest with you that that sport is intoxicating
but You want to know this is gonna sound as a
surprise. They just finished a soccer season
and watch what Bill Sweet said I grew up in that
program too. I did something about that pick
one I'm a baseball guy true and true. I guess
all right best best coach in Bristol in your
lifetime? Not answering that. Come on, man. No,
that's... No, I can't answer that. No, I can't
answer that. Bob Fiendel, my little league coach.
Done. You answered it. There you go. Because
he got me to love baseball. Why don't I tell
Gene and say him? One player to take the last
shot. One player to take the last shot at Bristol
Eastern? Yeah. Because I take Donovan Klingon
because I watch him take a lot of them. Against
me for Bristol Eastern You got to draw one up
one guy's taking it as an assistant or head head.
No either either Cody Bain Okay, fair thousand
-point score. He means he made more than your
Western He went to Western. All right. Yeah one
guy to tow the rubber and get out of a bases
loaded. No out jam Mm, Blandino or Lejeune, I
say Blandino just because he can strike somebody
out, but Craig can get it out. Depends who's
behind him picking up the ball, but Matt Blandino
can strike guys out. Two outs, full count, tying
on third, winning on second. Who's batting? You
could pinch hit anyone that you've ever had.
Mitch Gilmett. Left -handed hitter. Why? because
he wouldn't he wouldn't try to hit it out of
the park he'd shorten up with two strikes and
he would he would hit it to all fields that's
a lost art now and if you're a baseball guy you
know what i mean somebody that can hit it to
all fields that's tough to strike out that has
that little bit of extra yeah he's not sexy you
know i don't know if anybody will ever say i've
had a lot of guys that have probably done more
but he's the guy you trust okay penalty kick
Jake Wasnicki. He scored 63 goals, I'm sure.
Goalie against a penalty kick. Oh, Dan Mikolovsky.
Easy. Never made a never made the state tournament,
but you know what? That's because he had to make
45 saves. Not our best teams, but I'll be honest
with you, Dan Mikolovsky is a Hall of Famer.
He's unbelievable. One defensive stop in basketball.
One defensive stop. Who's my guy? Who's the guy
that, you know, you just gotta grind with? Hmm,
that's a tough one, man. One defensive stop.
Who are you gonna go? Is it a guard? Is it a
big? What am I trying? What am I trying to stop?
A player. That's a player. I just gotta stop
somebody. Oof. Matt Goulet. Wow, he's liking
the French names here. Who's the best teammate
you ever had at Eastern? It's Connecticut. Oh,
Christom Otto. Okay, other than present company.
Who's your best? Who's your best? Business partner
at the person. I'm kidding With the receipts
Hey angry J. Hey, um one guy to make a bucket
for me in your high school career at a bunny
this college Tyler Rowe Play that he actually
transferred out there. I remember him. I miss
half that Western he played at Central Yeah,
he's playing now some Canadian basketball a little
5 -eleven guy from Windsor. Yeah Does Terry Bulls
Dom Dowell class s does he get a sniff anywhere
on a list like that a stop or a bucket? He's
in the conversation, but he's not getting the
final vote. Guys, I don't mean to cut you off
because I got a wife sitting at a table and I
got to get in there and I had to do the speeches.
I'll be honest with you. We finally made him
stop talking. I would love to do this to come
back. This is outstanding. I love talking sports,
especially with all these guys that are up here
that I know that... You're coming back. We finally
got him to put the mic down. He dropped it. Thanks,
Bunty. Thanks, Bunty. Well, if I don't do a Sporty's
plug right now for the podcast, then I am not
doing my job. Sporty's is on Judd Street. They
do a really good job. They have good wings. And
Eddie just kind of moved over there, so the kitchen's
the best. So Sporty's is just, it's amazing.
And then, hey, I love talking about sports with
you guys, because I know how good you guys are.
You're welcome any time, Bunty. Thanks for coming.
Bye, Bunty. Have a great night. All right, everybody,
we're going to wrap it up. We got plenty other
fillers, but it's not a filler night. This was
about the inductees. and those Bristol lifers.
Studio engineer Kevin Ross, unbelievable job.
Crocker limping around getting us guests. Angry
Jay, the Don father, and myself. Thanks for putting
up with us. Guests were tremendous. Congratulations.
Bobby Callit, Thomas in high school, 30 years.
Bristol Sports Hall of Fame, 2025. See you next
time, guys.