As both residents and non-residents alike come to link the tradition of Branford sports with teamwork, loyalty and pride,\u00a0 they can define one example of such trademarks in 2001 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee George R. \u201cHawk\u201d Henninger.<\/p>\n
\u201cHawk\u201d attended the Branford Public School system until the beginning of his junior year, when his family moved to New Haven.\u00a0 \u201cHawk\u201d was an active member of the Class of 1947 until he moved.\u00a0 He played with many of the 1947 State Championship basketball team members including\u00a0 Bill Mischler (\u201993), Jim Murphy (\u201995), Ken Erickson (\u201997) and Robert Vishno (\u201901).\u00a0 This 1947 team made a clean sweep of both the Housatonic League and State Class \u201cB\u201d titles.\u00a0 The title game was decided in the last\u00a0 eight seconds against Wilcox Tech as Branford won 33-31.\u00a0 Branford was considered the best team in State Class B competition and also placed on an equal platform with many Class \u201cA\u201d teams.\u00a0 \u201cHawk\u201d and the Hornets team went undefeated with 18 regular season victories and three tournament wins en route to a second Housatonic League Championship and a third state title.\u00a0 While at Hillhouse High School, \u201cHawk\u201d made the basketball team but family responsibilities forced him to forgo playing.\u00a0 His teammates won the New England Title at the Boston Garden in 1948.<\/p>\n
In 1947, Hawk joined the United States Air Force, where he remained as a radio mechanic for the 8th Air Force until 1950.\u00a0 Shortly after leaving the service, he enlisted again in January of 1951 during the Korean War.\u00a0 During his second stint in the service, he was involved in air sea rescue.\u00a0 He returned to the New Haven area and soon moved\u00a0 back to Branford.\u00a0 He was married to his wife, Jacqueline, for 32 years prior to her passing in 1998. George is the father to two daughters, Karen and\u00a0 Gretchen.\u00a0 After working as a steel worker, Hawk was hired by the Branford Board of Education in 1977 as a\u00a0 custodian.\u00a0 This began a 27 year career in the Branford schools, and in the process sparked the beginning for tonight\u2019s inductee to become one of the best known and most popular citizen\u2019s and sportsmen in the town.<\/p>\n
In athletics, Hawk has been a softball enthusiast\u00a0 from an\u00a0 early age, mostly as a spectator, although\u00a0 he did make cameo appearances with some of Branford teams in both fast pitch and slow pitch softball.\u00a0 In 1965, Hawk served as player-manager for the Minnie\u2019s Softball Team, which won the championship in the West Haven Softball League.\u00a0\u00a0 Hawk is best known as being one of the best fans and supporters\u00a0 of sports in Branford. He was an avid follower and supporter of the Eel Pot and the Silver Dollar teams and many of the Branford Recreation Department\u2019s men\u2019s, women\u2019s and co-ed softball teams played at Veteran\u2019s Memorial Park.\u00a0 Since 1980, George has averaged attending more than 200 Branford High School games a year – girls, boys, freshman, junior\u00a0 varsity and varsity games and is recognized as Branford\u2019s biggest sports fan.<\/p>\n
For the past ten years, Hawk has served as a volunteer at the Y-Me Golf Tournament that is held annually to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer. One of his many roles is stationed at the second hole to measure closest to the pin and witness possible holes-in-one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":743,"template":"","class_list":["post-742","inductee","type-inductee","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/742"}],"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\/743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}