Mon 30 Nov 2009
Print • EmailTo the Williams Community,
I am saddened to report the death yesterday of one of the college’s most colorful figures, former basketball coach Al Shaw, at the age of 101.
Al earned induction into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame for his career here, which ran from 1949 to 1973. Before college athletics were separated into divisions, his 1955 team made the NCAA tournament, playing Canisius College in Madison Square Garden. Our basketball offices were long ago named in his honor.
He also helped coach football, baseball, and lacrosse here and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
For decades after retiring, he regularly trolled college offices for specimens to add to his expansive stamp collection. Until very recently, only a fool would challenge him to a game of H-O-R-S-E, so deadly was his nonagenarian two-hand set shot.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Marion, and son, John. We will relay information about a memorial service when it is known.
Regards,
Bill Wagner
Interim President
| « Outside Consultant | Afford To Retire » |
7 Responses to “Al Shaw”
Leave a Reply
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post
If a comment you submitted does not show up, please email us at eph at ephblog dot com. Please note that commenters are required to use a valid email address when submitting comments.
frank uible says:
R.I.P.. Al.
David says:
Frank,
How about sharing some Al stories with us?
Henry Bass says:
Al was a wonderful teacher. My high school physical education teacher had utterly failed to teach me how to make basic basketball shots. Al had me doing them in about 5 minutes in the eph course. He took awkard kids as seriousaly as the most athletically gifted.
We became good friends. He was a regular at lectures sponsored by the Lecture Committee with wide intellectual interests. I regarded him as the most scholarly member of the athletics department.
Guy Creese '75 says:
Al Shaw had semi-retired by the time I was at Williams, but he taught some Phys Ed courses and I think was the JV Basketball coach. He was the classic liberal arts/small college coach. As Henry Bass notes, he didn’t care if you were a star athlete or someone just trying to get through your Phys Ed requirements–he helped you get better at whatever it was you were doing. A fond memory for me, and a good counterpoint to some of the big university coaches whose modus operandi is to scream all the time.
frank uible says:
The best Al Shaw story, in my opinion, is to reiterate part of the record of his remarkable ‘54-’55 Williams basketball team. As I recall, among the teams which Williams defeated that season were West Point, UMass, BC, BU, Harvard Dartmouth, Vermont and Rhode Island – all played on the road except for Dartmouth and Vermont. If there are memories sharper than mine in this regard, please feel free to correct me.
frank uible says:
Extensive obit in today’s Globe.
jeffz says:
Link to obit mentioned by Frank:
http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/mens_basketball/articles/2009/12/02/alex_shaw_basketball_coach_won_301_games_at_williams/