42nd Hall of Fame Induction - Graber Associates

JACK FLANAGAN ‘59FootballAll it took for Jack Flanagan to make thebelated launch of his football career was achange of clothing.“One of my buddies told me to take off myleather jacket, get off the street corner, andgo out for football,” he said. “So I did, insenior year. Played a few games, got hurtfor a few games.”The minimal football experience thatFlanagan received at Boston College HighSchool was good enough for his coach andmentor, Charlie McCoy, to tab the youngman as a college football prospect.“He saw something that I didn’t knowexisted in me,” said Jack, who started atfullback in the season-opening jamboree.“When we came back to practice the nextweek, he said ‘There’s a lot of changes.Flanagan’s an end.’ I didn’t know how heknew I could catch a pass, but God blesshim!”Jack’s mother Ruth Rubicus was a hardworkingsingle parent who lived in thethree-deckered neighborhood of Dorchesterknown as Savin Hill. She saved as much aspossible of her salary and tips from waitressingand bartending to send Jack, herolder son, to school at BC High just acrossthe Southeast Expressway. While Jack didattend the Jesuit institution, for his firstthree years he preferred to hang out in the‘hood rather than participate in schoolsports.Classmate Jim Cotter finally persuadedFlanagan to give football a whirl. His seasonwas cut short by an injury to his midsection,but Jack saw that he liked the game. Itturned out that he had a good bit of innateathletic talent. His mother, a big, strongwoman of Lithuanian descent, had beengood enough to be invited to the U.S.Olympic tryouts in shot put and javelin duringthe 1930s.Flanagan told McCoy that he was planningto go into the army after graduation, butCharlie prevailed upon Fordham to giveFlanagan, Cotter, and Jack Furey footballscholarships. Then a slight problemcropped up. Fordham dropped football.Flanagan, Furey and Cotter came back toBoston and tried out at Boston College.McCoy, who had entered the seminary,urged head coach Mike Holovak and endcoach Bill Flynn to give the raw but talentedFlanagan a fair shot at making the teamand earning a scholarship.“Bill Flynn was my real mentor. He likedme and taught me how to play football,”says Jack. “We called him The Whip. He’dget down in the trenches and block withyou. The Whip made you tough. The agreementI had was that if I made the team I’dget a scholarship. My Mom didn’t havemoney to send me for more than the firstyear, so it was either knock people down ordon’t go to school.”Flanagan liked knocking people down. Heplayed both offensive and defensive end asa freshman, then started on both sides ofthe ball for nearly his entire varsity career.He was durable, missing just one game.“Playing both ways was the great part, andkids nowadays don’t get to enjoy it. Theyonly do one thing. It took a unique type ofa person. You couldn’t just be big and toughand tackling people. You couldn’t be thelight kid running down the field catchingpasses either. You’d have to come back anddo something very different afterwards.Knockin’ em down on defense was the mostfun, and you got your rewards from offense.You got to kick some butt and be a herotoo.”Don Allard, Alan Miller, and Jim Colcloughwere the BC stars of Flanagan’s era. Theteam had an overall mark of 18-10, includingthe 7-2 record in Jack’s junior year of1957, the first year of play in AlumniStadium. Jack never led the team in passescaught in any season, but at the time of hisgraduation he ranked fourth all-time in passreceptions.As a senior in 1986, Jack hauled in sixtouchdown passes to lead the team in scoringwith 36 points. He won the ScanlonAward as the outstanding student athleteand was runner up in the voting for the2010 INDUCTEEO’Melia Award, given to the most valuableplayer in the Holy Cross game.Jack enrolled in the Platoon Leaders Courseat BC, thinking he’d be joining the Marinesafter graduation. No NFL team drafted him,though he did get calls from Weeb Ewbankof the Colts and Jim Lee Howell of theGiants. Jack signed with the ChicagoCardinals, a team that needed more helpthan the Colts or the Giants. But thatspring, when playing in an alumni game atBoston College, he cracked a vertebra in hisback. He went to camp with the Cardinalsbut hurt the back again and had to retire.With his football career prematurely overand the Marines no longer an option, Jackreturned to BC High and served for a yearas assistant football coach. He liked it buthad to resist the Jesuits’ continual recruitingpitches for the Society. A summer constructionjob helped him land a positionwith Combustion Engineering inConnecticut. He sold nuclear boilers, andin 1974 he caught on with StorageTechnology, a startup firm that was an earlyhigh technology marvel.“Growing up in a neighborhood like SavinHill was a good preparation for the businessworld. You just had to be a little tougherthan other kids, and you wouldn’t take griieffrom anybody, in the computer businessor anywhere else,” said FlanaganJack stayed with Storage Technology for therest of his career, handling major telephoneindustry accounts in the Boston area. Afterretiring he was a consultant to vendorsseeking to sell to the telephone industry.Jack is an avid golfer and teaches the gameto kids at the Clearway School. His sonChris, who went to UVM, lives in SanDiego. Daughter Donna lives on the Capeand is in the computer business. Reflectingback over the years, Jack says.“Father Charlie was great because he gotthe coaches to watch me. The first playthat I was on at BC was a tackling drill, andJimmy Colclough just ran around me. Butthe agreement coach McCoy got for methere was ‘You play, we pay.’”“This sums it up. A kid from Dorchester gotlucky with a good high school coach.”15