In an era that was greatly influenced by the dark early years of World War II, when America\u2019s fortunes weren\u2019t good, 2007 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee Pasquale Proto provided a necessary \u201cspark\u201d with his winning attitude, a reassuring spirit and a genuine smile on the athletic field and within the community.<\/p>\n
Born in Branford on November 25, 1923, Pasquale attended Branford High School and graduated in 1942.\u00a0\u00a0 As a three sport-athlete ( football, basketball, and baseball), he played for coaches and Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductees John Knecht Jr. (1988) and Stu Clancy (1989) and was a teammate of Joe Orsene (1989), \u00a0Stan Petela (1989), George \u201cBattle\u201d Laich (1989), Levi Jackson (1991), and Bill Fortune (1997).<\/p>\n
A forward on the Branford High School basketball team during the 1939-40 season, \u201cPatsy\u201d, as he was known by many, led the Hornets to a Class B play-down birth, only to fall short to Manchester Tech, 37-36.\u00a0 Branford finished the regular season with 10 wins and seven losses.\u00a0 The following season, Branford had one of its most successful seasons in several years, crowning itself the Housatonic League champions by winning 18 out of 22 games and winning the Class B Tournament. During the season, he played with 1997 fellow inductee Tony Hynovich.\u00a0 During his senior year, \u201cPatsy\u201d helped Branford to a second place finish in the Housatonic League, ending with nine victories and five defeats.\u00a0 However, more importantly, the Hornets claimed the Class B State Championship defeating Woodrow Wilson by a score of 41-35.<\/p>\n
In addition to his talents on the hardwood floor, tonight\u2019s inductee displayed his athletic prowess on the football field and as a shortstop on the baseball diamond.\u00a0 Off the field, he \u00a0was voted \u201cMost Popular\u201d, \u201cClass Hero\u201d, \u201cHappy-Go-Lucky\u201d, \u201cFaculty Joy\u201d, and \u201cMost Talkative\u201d by his classmates.<\/p>\n
Following high school, \u201cPatsy\u201d entered the United States Army and was in World War II.\u00a0 When he returned from the service, he went to work at Algonquin Industries as a shipping clerk for 17 years.<\/p>\n
As a civic contributor, he was a past member of the Branford Elks Club and was a long-time softball umpire and basketball referee for the Branford Recreation Department.\u00a0 \u201cPatsy\u201d also played baseball for the International Silver Baseball Team.<\/p>\n
Survived by his daughters, Nancy, Elizabeth (Betsy) Gage and son, Paul, \u201cPatsy\u201d was the grandfather to Michael Ammann and Amanda Gage.\u00a0 He was the husband to the former Katherine Prahovic Proto. Tonight\u2019s inductee joins his brothers, Anthony \u201cTony\u201d (1998) and William \u201cWillie\u201d (1999), into the Branford Sports Hall of Fame. \u00a0Sadly, he passed away on July 20th, 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":603,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/602"}],"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\/603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}