He's the keeper of the stats for Ipswich
For 44 years, John Thomas has ignored his disability and archived high school sports numbers
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Not too long after he graduated in 1968, John Thomas began a 20-year stint as a clerk in the athletic department at Ipswich High. If you ask anybody who has gone through that office, they'll tell you he is the one-man encyclopedia for Ipswich sports.
(Globe Staff Photo / David Kamerman) |
It was fall 1964, John Thomas recalled. And around Ipswich, it's hard to question the man's memory.
Thomas was getting adjusted at Ipswich High, and the school was adjusting to him.
These days, Thomas would be called a special-needs student, since he was born with an ailment that affected his joints and muscles and put him in a wheelchair when he was a child.
"The teachers, the staff, they worried about me all the time," said the longtime Ipswich sports statistician. "Having somebody in a wheelchair. [It was] a culture shock to have somebody come to class in a wheelchair. There was no such thing as special needs. I was mainstreamed all the way."
So, in 1964, Thomas was all set for the first day of biology, and in strolled Jack Welch.
Welch was a fresh face, raised in Newburyport, trained by the Navy, educated at the University of Maine, and now employed for the first time out of college by Ipswich High as a teacher and coach. No one knew then he would become the greatest coach in the history of Ipswich football, which is an easy call 44 years and 224 wins later.
The pair just clicked.
"When he came, he expected everybody to participate," Thomas said. Everybody, including Thomas.
Welch made Thomas the football correspondent, and had him take down all the statistics and highlights and call them in to the local papers. Thomas was on the sideline every game. Welch made sure of it himself, picking Thomas up before they'd even drawn the lines on the field and dropping him home after everyone had cleared out.
Not too long after he graduated in 1968, Thomas began a 20-year stint as a clerk in the athletic department. If you ask anybody who has gone through that office, they'll tell you he is the one-man encyclopedia for Ipswich High School sports.
Thomas, who will turn 60 in July, lives in a small community run by the Ipswich Housing Authority. He doesn't have a lot of space, but packs it with everything Ipswich - old newspaper clippings, rosters, photos, stats, miniature helmets with Welch's career victory total painted on the side, even his own ring from the Tigers' Super Bowl run in 2006.
"He knows everything, every little detail, every score," athletic director Tom Gallagher said. "Without him, I don't know where we'd be, honestly, because he is Ipswich High School sports."
And yet he's so much more.
"I consider him a friend of mine," said Welch, 74, who retired in 2000. "Not only a friend but also a kind of guy whom I've always admired. I get a lot of my inspiration from him. . . . He's the kind of kid who gets through life based upon his courage."
Until about five or six years ago, Thomas didn't even know what his disability was. The way he saw it, he was born that way and there was nothing he could do to change it.
"I never looked it up," he said. "A lot of people don't."
The only reason he knows now is because five or six years ago, his brother, Mike, looked it up, because his doctor needed to know his family's medical history.
Mike Thomas researched the disease online. Arthrogryposis is what they called it. The cause stems from insufficient room in the womb at birth. The result is lack of bone development and muscle mass. It typically affects the joints.
John Thomas spent about 15 years in and out of hospitals. When he was at Lakeville State Hospital, a long-term-care facility that closed in 1992, his mother, Theresa, couldn't stand to have him there anymore.
She and her friend, Theresa Pickul, tried to figure out a way to get him better care. They wrote a letter to the Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston, back when it was the Joseph Patrick Kennedy Hospital.
The letter was effective enough to get him in, and Thomas is still grateful. "Unbelievable pediatric hospital," Thomas said. "Everybody I ever had there was royal to me. Absolutely royal."
That's how Thomas describes many people - "royal." Especially people from Ipswich.
"He still calls people 'my classmate,' " Gallagher said. "Everyone he went to school with he still considers a close personal friend."
Mostly because they were. Dave Drown, the voice of Tigers football the last five years, goes all the way back to junior high school with Thomas. He played football, baseball, basketball, and track, so, of course, Thomas charted his every move.
"He was always the loudest fan at the pep rallies," Drown said. "He has a spirit that's rivaled by none, really."
Drown would go to Thomas's house and help get him ready for school. He still visits.
"There's a great tradition at Ipswich High School, and John has helped the endurance of that tradition because of his dedication. And he enjoys it so much, that's what makes him so good at it."
Thomas keeps a slim Mac computer on his lap nowadays - a gift from an Ipswich alumnus - with a printer and a scanner by his side. Ipswich faithful burn DVDs of games so he can watch them while he works on all kinds of reports.
Thomas has managed to build a strong relationship with Welch since that first day in biology class 44 years ago. The two still talk about twice a week, about life more than anything else. Even though he moved back to Newburyport, Welch travels to Ipswich once a week and brings lunch to Thomas. And he calls every weekend, never fails.
"If anybody's been an inspiration to me over the years, it's John," Welch said. "John's the kind of guy when you go visit him, that when you think about you may be going through problems, then you go and see him and see his situation, you realize how lucky you are and how lucky that you have been blessed."
It's been two years since Thomas has been on the football sideline. He said he will try to get to a game in the fall, but it's complicated because his caregivers usually have him settled for the night by the time the games start, and also because it could cost $100 to $150 just to get a van to take him to a game.
But he wants to go. And people want to see him, including Drown.
Ipswich is in the process of building a new press box for its football field. Drown's voice will be booming over the public-address system. But the one thing holding up the construction is accessibility for the handicapped.
It's like the press box is waiting on Thomas. "Soon as we get that up," Drown said, "he'll be in the press box for sure."
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.
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