Whether he realized it or\u00a0 not, 2001 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee Gary W. Lipkvich established an\u00a0 exemplary blueprint for others to duplicate on how to find their role in the athletic, academic, or community service spectrum.<\/p>\n
Gary attended Branford High School from 1966 to 1969, and was a three sport athlete. As a running back on the Branford Hornets, he was a teammate of fellow Hall of Fame inductee Joe Roberti (\u201999) and played for coach Tom Murray (\u201992).\u00a0 During his senior year, Gary was a tri-captain\u00a0 for the gridiron unit, which compiled a record of 6-3.\u00a0 Branford finished in third place in the tough Housatonic League that year and had two memorable victories including – a 32-16 win at\u00a0 Cheshire, and a 32-0 shutout\u00a0 versus East Haven in the annual Thanksgiving Day game.\u00a0\u00a0 He earned a spot on the All-Housatonic League and All-State teams,\u00a0 in addition to being named the New Haven Register Player\u00a0 of the Year.\u00a0 Tonight\u2019s inductee also claimed a spot in the Nutmeg Bowl and won the team\u2019s Stu Clancy Award.<\/p>\n
On the basketball team, Gary played during his sophomore, junior, and\u00a0 senior years.\u00a0 As a forward, he was part of the 1966-67 Hornets Housatonic League championship team which won 18 of 20 games and advanced to the C.I.A.C. Class B Semi-Final Tournament game, losing to Abbott Tech\u00a0 70-61.\u00a0 Gary played with inductees Jerry Schmitz (\u201996) and Ted Kaczynski (\u201999).\u00a0 During his junior year, Gary was\u00a0 part of the Hornets hoops team, which tied for first place in the Housatonic League, and won 13 of 21 games.\u00a0 Branford captured key victories during the tail end\u00a0 of the regular season against the likes of Shelton (68-58), Cheshire (50-45), and East Haven (58-53),\u00a0 defeated Penney (56-48) and Simsbury (70-59) in the Class A tournament, before losing to Wilby 66-62. Gary was named to the All-Housatonic League team, the All-State Second Team and won the Savit Award in his junior year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In his senior season as quad-captain, Branford\u00a0 claimed a spectacular 18-2 record and another Housatonic League title, losing only to Cheshire\u00a0 56-54 in the regular season,\u00a0 and to East Catholic, 51-40 in tournament action .\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In baseball, Gary was a second baseman during his sophomore and junior seasons.<\/p>\n
Following graduation, he attended Manlius Military Preparatory School and accepted a one year post-graduate scholarship.\u00a0 While there, Gary played halfback on the football team and forward on the basketball team.\u00a0 He was nominated and accepted to West Point but opted not to attend.\u00a0 From 1970 to 1972, he attended the University of Miami (Fla.) on a full four-year football scholarship as an outside linebacker.\u00a0 In his junior year,\u00a0 he transferred to the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n
In 1974 he started the East Shore Wire Rope & Rigging Supply, Inc. with his father. Soon\u00a0 his two younger brothers joined the business, which now employs nine people.\u00a0 Gary is married to the former Anne Marie Paulsen and now has two daughters, Allyanne and Cassandra.\u00a0 He has sat on the Linden Shore District Board of Directors for three years and is an active member of the Branford Yacht Club and Dorr Street Tennis Association.\u00a0 He now coaches a team\u00a0 in the Junior Girls Division of the Branford Soccer Club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":787,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/786"}],"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\/787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}