Harry Agganis - Topps baseball card - 1955 Series, #152

Aristotle George (Harry) Agganis (April 20, 1929 - June 27, 1955) nicknamed "The Golden Greek", was an American athletic star in two sports. Image File history File links Harry Agganis - old Topps baseball card - downloaded from http://www. ... Image File history File links Harry Agganis - old Topps baseball card - downloaded from http://www. ... The Topps Company (NASDAQ: TOPP) is a publicly traded company based in New York City that manufactures candy and collectibles. ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Career

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Agganis was a star football player at Boston University, primarily at quarterback. After a sophomore season in 1949, when he set a school record by tossing fifteen touchdown passes, he entered the Marine Corps. Agganis played for the Camp Lejeune (N.C.) football and baseball teams. He received a dependency discharge from the Marines to support his mother and returned to college to play in 1951-52. Agganis became the school's first All-American in football. Lynn is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts. ... United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that is both fast-paced and strategic. ... Boston University is a non-sectarian private university located in Boston, Massachusetts. ... The quarterback is a position in the offensive backfield of American and Canadian football, directly behind players of the line. He is generally the leader of the offensive team when it is on the field, responsible for initiating play by receiving the snap of the ball from the center. ... A touchdown is the primary method of scoring in American and Canadian football, in which the ball carrier causes the football to break the plane of the end zone, thus earning 6 points for his team (in both codes). ... United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the U.S. military. ... Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is near Jacksonville, North Carolina, on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. ... State nickname: Tar Heel State Other U.S. States Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Governor Michael Easley (D) Official languages English Area 139,509 km² (28th)  - Land 126,256 km²  - Water 13,227 km² (9. ... An All-America team is a sports team composed of star players. ...

Agganis set another Boston University mark by passing for 1,402 yards for the season and won the Bulger Lowe Award as New England's outstanding football player. Coach Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns thought he could be the successor to Otto Graham and drafted the college junior in the first round of the 1952 NFL draft, offering him a bonus of $25,000. Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey outdid Brown, however, and signed Agganis to play Major League Baseball for the Red Sox as a first baseman for $35,000. He batted and threw left-handed. Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 - August 5, 1991) was a pioneering figure in football history, and is considered the father of the modern offense. ... Conference AFC Division North Year Founded 1946 Home Field Cleveland Browns Stadium City Cleveland, Ohio Team Colors Brown, Orange, and White Head Coach Romeo Crennel All-Time Record (W-L-T) (At Start of 2005 Season) 467-356-13 The Cleveland Browns are a National Football League team based in... Otto Everett Graham Jr. ... NFL logo The National Football League (NFL) is the largest and most popular professional American football league, consisting of thirty-two teams from American cities. ... The Boston Red Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Ted Williams & Tom Yawkey Thomas Austin Tom Yawkey (February 21, 1903 - October 10, 1976) was an American industrialist and Major League Baseball executive. ... MLB logo Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in professional baseball in the world. ... The position of the first baseman First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a base runner in order to score a run for that players team. ...

Following his 1953 college graduation, Agganis played with the Triple-A Louisville where he hit .281 with 23 home runs and 108 RBI. He made his major league debut on April 13, 1954. Agganis had a modest rookie campaign, though he did lead American League first basemen in assists and fielding percentage. The American Association has been the name of at least two leagues of professional United States of America. ... Batting average is a statistic in both baseball and cricket measuring the performance of baseball hitters and cricket batsmen, respectively. ... For other uses of the phrase see Home run (disambiguation) In baseball, a home run is a base hit in which the batter is able to circle all the bases, ending at home plate and scoring a run himself (along with a run for each runner who was already on... In baseball statistics, a run batted in (RBI) is given to a batter for each run scored as the result of a batters plate appearance. ... See also: 1953 in sports, 1955 in sports and the list of years in sports. Auto Racing NASCAR Championship - Lee Petty AAA Racing: Bill Vukovich won the Indianapolis 500 Jimmy Bryan won the season championship Formula One Championship - Argentina 24 hours of Le Mans: the team of Froilán Gonz... The Rookie: Norman Rockwells cover for The Saturday Evening Post Rookie is a term for a person who is in their first year of play of their sport and has little or no experience. ... The American League (or formally the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs) is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States of America and Canada. ... A number of sports have a statistic known as an assist: An assist (hockey) goes to the player or players who helped set up a goal. ... In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player handles a batted ball properly. ...

In 1955, Agganis was off to a good start when tragedy struck. On June 2, he was hospitalized with pneumonia after complaining of severe fever and chest pains. Though he rejoined the Red Sox ten days later, he fell ill again in Kansas City on June 27 and was flown back to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he died of a pulmonary embolism at age of 26. Ten thousand mourners attended his wake. Pneumonia (the ancient Greek word for lungs) is defined as an inflammation, usually caused by infection, involving the alveoli of the lungs. ... Kansas City generally refers to the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, including: Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Kansas Other Kansas City areas include: Kansas City, Oregon Kansas City, Tennessee In computing, the term Kansas City standard refers to a standard for storage of data on audio cassettes. ... City Hall - Cambridge MA Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. ...

Agganis was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974. Gaffney Street, near the former site of Braves Field in Boston, was renamed Harry Agganis Way in his honor on November 11, 1995. In 2005, Boston University opened their new athletic facility, Agganis Arena. The College Football Hall of Fame, located in South Bend, Indiana, United States, is a hall of fame devoted to college football. ... See also: 1973 in sports, 1975 in sports and the list of years in sports. Auto Racing Stock car racing: Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 NASCAR Championship - Richard Petty IROC Championship - inaugural year won by Mark Donohue Indianapolis 500 - Johnny Rutherford USAC Racing - Bobby Unser Formula One Championship - Brazil... Braves Field was a baseball stadium that formerly stood in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Boston University is a non-sectarian private university located in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Agganis Arena is a 6,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. ...

Batting and fielding statistics

 YEAR TEAM AGE G AB R H 2B 3B HR HR% RBI BB SO SB CS AVG SLG OBA OPS 1954 Redsox 25 132 434 54 109 13 8 11 2.53 57 47 57 6 3 .251 .394 .321 .715 1955 Redsox 26 25 83 11 26 10 1 0 0.00 10 10 10 2 0 .313 .458 .383 .841 TOTALS 157 517 65 135 23 9 11 2.13 67 57 67 8 3 .261 .404 .331 .735 LG AVERAGE 518 67 137 21 5 11 2.15 63 59 57 5 4 .266 .389 .342 .731 POS AVERAGE 525 67 143 23 5 15 2.79 75 58 58 3 2 .272 .421 .344 .764 

 YEAR TEAM RC RCAA RCAP OWP RC/G TB EBH ISO SEC BPA IBB HBP SAC SF GIDP OUTS PA POS 1954 Redsox 56 -5 -11 .460 4.37 171 32 .143 .258 .442 0 0 7 5 6 346 493 1B 1955 Redsox 15 1 -1 .523 6.64 38 11 .145 .289 .500 0 0 0 1 3 61 94 1B TOTALS 71 -4 -12 .471 4.71 209 43 .143 .263 .452 0 0 7 6 9 407 587 LG AVERAGE 70 0 0 .500 4.63 202 37 .124 .240 .432 1 3 6 5 12 407 591 POS AVERAGE 76 7 0 .541 5.07 221 43 .149 .261 .458 1 3 5 6 11 407 597 

Quote

• "No longer are we foreigners. Thanks to Harry we are the Golden Greeks once more." Those were the words of Harry Agganis' mother two years after her son's death. They are not the exaggerations of a proud parent. They are the words of a Greek woman who saw. - Harry Agganis' legend lives on, by By Courtney Deveau, at The Daily Item of Lynn

See also

• Boston University Athletics
• North Shore Spirit

Boston University has ten mens and eleven womens varsity athletic teams competing in NCAA Division I. The men compete in basketball, cross country, golf, ice hockey, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, and wrestling. ... The North Shore Spirit are a baseball team in the independent Can-Am League (the Northeast League through 2004. ...

External links

• College Football Hall of Fame
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• Harry Agganis statue unveiled at The Helenic Voice
• BaseballLibrary.com
• Agganis Arena page
• Photo gallery