Known for setting an example as the \u201ctypical\u201d senior in school, 2000 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee Dave Clark\u00a0 was much more than that when it came to his accomplishments as a three sport athlete, a dedicated student, and an outstanding community person.<\/p>\n
Born in 1927, Dave attended Branford High School and played football, basketball, and baseball.\u00a0 During the 1943-44 season, Dave was part of the Hornets basketball team as a guard, which was under the direction of head coach and fellow Hall of Fame inductee John Knecht (1988).\u00a0 After winning 14 games in the regular season, Branford claimed the Housatonic League title, before losing to East Hartford in the Class \u201cB\u201d State Finals, 39-37.\u00a0 Dave\u00a0 was a teammate to fellow Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductees, Bill Hinchey (1991), Steve Pauk (1999), and Don Erickson (1999).<\/p>\n
The following year,\u00a0 the Hornets were led by new coach and inductee, Warren Sampson (1992).\u00a0 Branford won the State Class \u201cB\u201d State Championship\u00a0 defeating Derby in the finals, 31-25.\u00a0 In the regular season, the Hornets ran second to \u201cA\u201d class Stratford in the Housatonic League.\u00a0 During that season, opponents marveled at Dave\u2019s ability in passing, shooting, and floor play.\u00a0\u00a0 Hall of Fame inductees Bill Mischler (1993),\u00a0 Jim Murphy (1995),Robert Geier (1996), Ken Erickson (1997), Henry Olejarczyk (1998), Tony Proto (1998),\u00a0 and\u00a0 Charlie Lake (1999) were all teammates that season.\u00a0\u00a0 As a member of the Class \u201cB\u201d Championship baseball team in his junior year, Dave assumed the captain role in his senior season as the third baseman.<\/p>\n
Off the athletic field, tonight\u2019s inductee demonstrated a unique community spirit in high school as he was the school\u2019s Editor in Chief of the newspaper, Class President, Boy\u2019s Glee Club, Class Social Chairman, Graduation Usher, Junior Prom Committee,, Class Gift Committee, Class Ring Committee, and Classbook Committee.<\/p>\n
Voted by his class as \u201cBest Alibier\u201d, \u201cMost Popular\u201d, \u201cMost Sociable\u201d, \u201cClass Flirt\u201d, \u201cBest Actor\u201d, \u201cFaculty Joy\u201d, and \u201cClass Arguer\u201d, Dave later attended Yale University in the class of 1950 and was a captain of the baseball team and a class officer.\u00a0 Following graduation, he was Class Secretary and Reunion Chair for many years. He worked as \u00a0a stockbroker \u00a0in Institutional Sales in New York and later\u00a0 in Hartford for the last 18 years of his life. Dave\u00a0 was the father to son, Tony, and daughter,\u00a0 Susan and was\u00a0 the grandfather of two. David passed away in 1991.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":507,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductee"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}