The man who tallied 44 knockouts also has a street in his adopted hometown of Easton named after him and owns a building overlooking the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers.

Holmes, now 60, will be honored with a 9-foot bronze statue in the city’s Scott Park. A rendering of the sculpture was unveiled Monday. Holmes said he hopes it inspires kids who don’t expect to achieve great things.

“If that had happened when I was young and crazy, it probably would’ve went to my head,” Holmes said in a videotaped interview with Express-Times writer Michael LoRe. Watch it below.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., who grew up with Holmes in the former Delaware Terrace housing development on South Side, calls it a dream come true.

“It’s for every kid who grew up in the projects, for every kid who grew up underprivileged, for every kid who grew up with one parent and for every kid who had a goal,” Panto said.

The $250,000 cost for the statue will be privately raised by selling bricks etched with donors’ names that will line a walkway up to and surrounding the statue. They cost $125 each. Names also can be etched on a wall behind the statue or on its base for $2,500 or $3,500. For information or to donate, visit larryholmesstatue.com.

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“The values that Yogi Berra has always presented are the values that we at the Learning Center preach and promote,” said Kaplan, adding the statue will be a great new centerpiece and “an inspiration to many for years to come.”

Hanlon talked about Berra’s significance as New Jersey’s greatest sports hero and a role model for children of many generations.

Berra and Hanlon then revealed a poster of the statue in its future location outside the atrium.

Asked to describe his excitement about the statue, Berra smiled and said simply, “I just want to see it up.”

Posted by Anna Hess on May 24, 2010 2:00 PM

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It showed a muscular Berra kneeling in the on-deck circle, gazing upward while holding two bats. The statue is the latest highlight for the colorful New York Yankees Hall of Famer, who won 10 World Series titles as a player and three MVP awards.

“It looks great,” the 85-year-old Berra said Monday after the picture of the statue was unveiled at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. “I didn’t know I looked that good.”

While many pictures were considered as the guide for the bronze statue, museum director Dave Kaplan said the rendition came from a 1950s Sports Illustrated photo.

Sculptor Brian Hanlon said the pose combines Berra’s talent on the field, his spiritual presence in the locker room and his impeccable behavior off the field.

“His neck and his hands are just ripped,” said Hanlon, who said it would take him 6-8 months to sculpt the statue in clay before it is sent to a foundry to be bronzed. The cost will be between $100,000-$125,000.

“He’s a baseball warrior,” Hanlon said. “I think as Michelangelo was great at doing this, creating energy and stillness, and would be my goal here, creating energy in this reflective piece.”

Berra admitted there are really only a couple of statues he likes. There is one of Mickey Mantle in Oklahoma and another of Stan Musial.

“I just hope this looks like them,” Berra quipped.

Carmen Berra, Yogi’s wife of 61 years, said that she visited the museum on a class trip about a week ago with her granddaughter, Alexandra. The 5-year-old wanted to know what the circle was outside the museum.

When told ‘that’s where they are putting Grandpa,’ the child reacted quickly.

“You mean we have to come here to see Grandpa,” Carmen Berra recalled Alexandra saying.

Yogi spent most of his time on Monday talking about his favorite topic — baseball.

“I liked to play,” Berra said. “I loved to play the game and I liked to watch the games, too. My wife gets mad at me sometimes because I am taking away her programs. I have to get her a new TV.”

Berra said he remains on very good terms with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

“He has done a heck of a job. It’s a beautiful stadium, everything.”

On his beloved Yankees, Berra said it was exciting watching this past weekend’s Subway Series with the Mets.

“We had chances,” Berra said, not hiding his allegiance. “We just didn’t hit at the right time. They scored all their runs yesterday with two outs and we had men on first and third with no outs and didn’t score. In the last inning, we got to within 6-4 and with a base hit you never know what could have happened.”

Berra said injuries have limited the Yankees in recent weeks.

“I think if we can just hang on till everyone gets back, we’ll be all right,” he said.

The former Mets manager also showed some love for the Flushing team, which won the series, 2-1.

“I still root for the Mets, but not when we play them,” Yogi said.

When asked about his former teammates, many of whom have died, Berra said that’s why he likes Old Timer’s Day.

“I like seeing the guys come back, but a lot of our guys are leaving, the ones that I played with, a lot have passed away,” Berra said. “It’s still good to see the guys and other teams, too. It’s great.”

While baseball has changed since he retired, Berra said the essence of the game is the same.

“It’s baseball,” said the beloved icon who coined the phrase ‘It ain’t over till it’s over.’

“You have to love to play it and I loved to play it,” he added. “Where else could you make that kind of money playing ball. I still love baseball. If I’m not out there, I could watch three or four games.”
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

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by Staci Backauskas

Brian Hanlon shapes memories. A sculptor, his chief subject is giving form to the past and catching people’s proudest moments.

Highlights from Hanlon’s career include a sculpture honoring 100 years of volunteer firefighters, which stands in downtown Toms River, N.J., and a statue recently unveiled in Barnegat Light (pop. 764) celebrating New Jersey’s fishermen. Last summer, he dedicated a bronze statue of a teacher reading to four elementary school students that now stands outside The Village School in the town where he grew up, Holmdel, N.J. (pop. 15,781).

Hanlon’s current pride and joy, The Spirit of the Little League, was dedicated this past fall. Inspired by the World Championship won by Toms River in 1998, Hanlon helped create the committee that has overseen the statue’s development. “The neighboring communities of Brick and Lakewood have had incredible teams as well,” Hanlon points out.

Now 40 and a resident of the Pleasant Plains area (pop. 2,577) of Toms River, Hanlon has sculpted professionally for more than 20 years. With the support of his wife, Michele, he created Hanlon Studios in 1994. A father of four—Molly, Maggie, Luke, and Declan—he loves living and working in the small Ocean County town that was once dotted with poultry farms.

Tucked behind a quiet residential street, the studio where he works is one of four old chicken coops once part of a farm, now filled with plaster casts and rubber molds. “I think it’s cool,” Hanlon smiles. “George Segal, one of the most famous American sculptors, is my hero, and he worked out of a chicken coop in South Brunswick for 50 years.”

A shelf in back holds busts Hanlon has sculpted over the years. Sea Bright’s Mayor Charles Rooney rests next to Pro Football Hall of Famer Dwight Stephenson. In describing each work, Hanlon pauses at Count Basie.

“That was an incredible experience,” he smiles. “A board member from the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, N.J., asked me to sculpt a bust of the Count.” His blue eyes sparkle as he continues. “I think Count Basie is the greatest band leader in history, so I jumped at the chance. B.B. King and I unveiled it together at the theater in 1999.”

Hanlon is interrupted by Molly Feldmus, the German woman who owns the chicken coops; she’s stopped by to say good morning. “Molly’s a big part of why I chose to do the Holocaust Memorial for the B’nai Israel Congregation in Toms River,” Hanlon explains after she leaves. “A lot of German holocaust survivors settled in New Jersey after the war. It was important to me to remember them.”

For that matter, it was a memory that turned him to sculpture as a lifelong pursuit. At Monmouth University on a track scholarship, Hanlon majored in art education and planned on teaching. Then, as a sophomore, he sculpted a statue honoring a Holmdel High School javelin thrower whose life tragically had been cut short. When he unveiled it for the athlete’s parents, it changed his life. “It was something about the look on his mother’s face,” Hanlon says, “that told me I needed to be a sculptor because I could make a difference as an artist.”

His work continues to make a difference. Joe Cannova, a local businessman and the chairman of the Spirit of the Little League committee, is excited about what Hanlon’s current statue represents to Toms River. “It was amazing what these kids did,” Cannova says. “They were the very best. The whole town got drawn in, and it forged a positive bond in the community. People still talk about that game.” (Toms River defeated Kashima, Japan, 12-9). Hanlon’s bronze statue of a coach and his player commemorates that excitement—and honors all those who take part in Little League.

Much of Hanlon’s work is rooted in history. Included on his docket are sculptures of retired University of Virginia football coach George Welsh and religious figure Padre Pio. But he’s already thinking ahead.

“I really want to do a statue of Mickey Mantle,” he grins. “He was the greatest baseball player who ever lived.”

Staci Backauskas is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

first appeared: 1/20/2002

For more information on Brian Hanlon, please visit http://www.hanlonsculpture.com

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Illinois Men’s Basketball Coach Bruce Weber, on behalf of alumnus Dee Brown, accepts the Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award from Basketball Hall of Fame sculptor Brian P. Hanlon Thursday morning at the Ubben Basketball Complex in Champaign. The award was given to Dee for his performance during the 2005 basketball season.

Although Dee Brown never won the coveted national championship trophy he spent four seasons trying for, “the one-man-fast break” and face of college basketball still received his fair share of recognition – and with good reason.

Brown, along with James Augustine, won a record 114 games while at Illinois, and returned the school to one of the elite basketball programs with its trip to the Final Four in 2005.

That’s why Hall of Famer Bob Cousy thought Brown to be the right choice for the Cousy Award, given to the nation’s best point guard. Brown was presented with the trophy on April 3 in Indianapolis before the NCAA Championship game.

On Thursday, Brian Hanlon, a sculptor for the Basketball Hall of Fame and artist for the Cousy Award, presented head coach Bruce Weber with a replica of the trophy at the Ubben Basketball Facility. The award, which is in its fourth year, honors Cousy, who played point guard for the 1947 Holy Cross NCAA Championship team, was a Boston Celtic great and was named one of the top 50 players in NBA history.

“The award has Bob’s name on it because Bob is concerned and very adamant about creating an award pointing to the point guard and pointing to the fundamentals of basketball: passing, dribbling, shooting; and that the individual is an individual with great character and is a leader on the court,” Hanlon said.

Weber said Cousy is a player who blended the lines between old-school basketball and new-school basketball because of his behind-the-back passes and between-the-leg dribbles, but also because of his sound fundamentals of “playing the point guard position like I believe it should be played.”

Previous recipients of the Cousy Award include former St. Joseph’s star and Orlando Magic guard Jameer Nelson, and also Raymond Felton, who played at the University of North Carolina and is now with the Charlotte Bobcats. Felton was the Co-MVP of the 2005 NCAA Championship game and was selected fifth in that year’s NBA draft.

“We feel it’s been extremely successful so far; we’re in our fourth year and we hope this will be the Heisman trophy of basketball, which would be a tremendous honor for the Hall and Cousy,” Hanlon said.

The replica of the Cousy Award will be kept in the trophy cases at Ubben, and Brown was presented with a replica cast in aluminum, which he keeps at his mother’s home in Chicago.

In August, the Hall of Fame unveiled a new display case for the trophy Brown received last April. Brown and Cousy were both on hand for the presentation.

Brown is Illinois’ only basketball national award winner in the modern era. Weber, who has jokingly said to head athletic director Ron Guenther that more trophy cases might need to be built, said he hopes Illinois sees more Cousy Award winners in the future.

“I don’t know how many times we’re going to have the opportunity to have a Cousy Award winner,” Weber said. “But since we have Dee, I thought it would be great to have them see something that we should cherish and promote for many years to come.”

For more information on the statues created by Brian Hanlon, please visit http://www.hanlonsculpture.com

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Firefighter statue to be unveiled at anniversary ceremony today

Sculptor, chief to unveil collaborative effort today

By Martin Luttrell TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
mluttrell@telegram.com
 

WORCESTER— Brian P. Hanlon recalled the grief he felt upon hearing about the six city firefighters who died in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building accidentally set ablaze by a homeless couple.

He wanted to submit a proposal for a memorial to be built behind Fire Department Headquarters on Grove Street, but was eventually put off by the scale of the project.

A few years later and 330 miles away, the New Jersey sculptor was “in the right place at the right time” when he noticed the Worcester Fire Department shirt being worn by fire Capt. Kevin Maloney at a fire training seminar in Baltimore. The ensuing conversation led Mr. Hanlon back to Worcester, where he already was doing a sculpture of the College of the Holy Cross graduate and Boston Celtics great Bob Cousy, and to a series of meetings with fire officials interested in a smaller remembrance at a station to be built on the site of the Cold Storage fire.

At 5 p.m. today a sculpture created by Mr. Hanlon will be unveiled by Fire Chief Gerard A. Dio at the new Franklin Street Fire Station to remember the firefighters who died nine years ago tonight searching for homeless people believed to be living in the former Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building.  

A large crowd was on hand Wednesday evening, December 3, 2008 for the unveiling of the Fallen 6 Firefighters Memorial (T&G staff photos/STEVE LANAVA)

They are: Firefighter Timothy P. Jackson Sr., who lived in Hopedale and was the father of two children; Firefighter Paul A. Brotherton, 41, of Auburn, a father of six; Firefighter Jeremiah M. Lucey, 38, of Leicester, a father of two; Lt. Thomas E. Spencer, 42, of Worcester, a father of three; Firefighter Joseph T. McGuirk, 38, of Leicester, a father of two; and Firefighter James F. Lyons, 34, of Worcester. Firefighters Jackson and Lyons were posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant. 

“I just think it’s going to be a fitting tribute for the people that matter, the families,” Mr. Hanlon said. “It’s humbling to do this. I respect the hell out of what these guys do,” he said as firefighters spread straw over muddy ground surrounding the sculpture, which was covered by a yellow tent earlier this week.

Mr. Hanlon, who has more than 200 public sculptures, has done several in honor of public safety personnel lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. He is working on another sculpture for Holy Cross and has been applying last-minute touches to the three-element remembrance on Franklin Street this week. He said that while the fundraising effort continues for an estimated $6.5 million memorial park behind the Grove Street fire headquarters, firefighters wanted a more personal remembrance in front of the new station on the former Cold Storage and Warehouse Co building site.

“I heard about it on the news,” Mr. Hanlon said. “I was invited to propose something on the original memorial. When I checked into it, it didn’t seem like the type of commission I do. The size of the project scared me off. This is a tribute, not a memorial.

“It’s important that the people have the heart of the project in them. Gerry Dio is a smart, prudent firefighter. He has the heart of this project.”

He said that while visiting Worcester for work on the Bob Cousy statue, he stopped at the Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building site before the new station was under construction and stood there for hours. Since then he has visited the site almost a dozen times, and said his concept took shape as the steel for the station began to take shape.

“I like to use three elements,” he said. “With this particular tribute, there’s a figure that represents the present: a firefighter reflecting on what happened. He’s in full modern gear. The detail is important.

“The next piece is a folded coat and helmet in front of the firefighter, on a pedestal. That is, in a subtle way, a memorial.”

Then behind it is a 12-foot-long by 6-foot-high granite wall with a composition of six firefighters, he said.

“They’re not meant to be likenesses, but to impart the spirit of the job,” he pointed out. “That’s an important distinction — the spirit of the job. They all work together.”

Fire Lts. John A. Daly and Andrew White and Capt. Maloney started a series of fire safety and training seminars nine years ago that raised money for the larger planned memorial, of which some $100,000 or so is being used for the sculpture to be unveiled today, said Chief Dio.

“It’s a remembrance, not a memorial. I don’t want to get the two confused,” Chief Dio said.

He said he had discussions with Mr. Hanlon about the concept and at one point had six firefighters from an engine, a ladder truck and a rescue truck suit up so the sculptor could see in detail how they looked.

“No one has seen the whole thing,” he said of the sculpture now under blue plastic tarps. “They will on Dec. 3. I’m a committee of one. I hope they like it. The buck stops with me.”

Mr. Hanlon said the earth tone granite will go well with the nearby station and helps convey what he is trying to impart to viewers.

“This has been an amazing experience so far,” he said. “Worcester is a beautiful slice of American pie. These guys are down to earth and great to work with.”

A portion of Franklin Street, from Grafton Street to Barbara Lane, will be closed from 3:30 to 7 p.m. today. Vehicles will be detoured during this time. Parking will be available at the Union Station Parking Garage for a flat rate of $1 from 3 to 9 p.m. for those attending the event.

A large crowd was on hand Wednesday evening, December 3, 2008 for the unveiling of the Fallen 6 Firefighters Memorial at the new Franklin Street fire station. This is the site of the 1999 warehouse fire that claimed the lives of six firefighters. (T&G staff photos/STEVE LANAVA)

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By Paul Jarvey TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
pjarvey@telegram.com
 
 
WORCESTER — Holy Cross has had its alumni reach the highest levels of business, law, media and government, but Bob Cousy, who helped the Crusaders win the 1947 NCAA basketball championship before leading the Boston Celtics to six NBA titles, will be the first graduate of the college to be honored with a statue on campus.

He is humbled by the distinction, but he doesn’t want his bronze likeness, which will be unveiled in Junein front of the Hart Center, to be alone.

“It is my hope in the not-too-distant future that I would be flanked by a prominent Holy Cross sports lady on my left and a distinguished minority athlete on my right,” Cousy said during a news conference yesterday to announce the project. “That would complete the picture of what a Jesuit education is all about.” 

Bob Cousy smiles yesterday during the news conference to announce that a statue of his likeness would be erected at Holy Cross. (T&G Staff/DAN GOULD)

Not wanting it to seem like he was promoting himself or pushing for a bronze likeness at his alma mater, Cousy was reluctant to even attend the news conference, but was convinced by Ken Kaufman, the former WPI basketball coach who chairs the statue committee, and Andy Laska, his former HC teammate and a member of the committee.

It’s a good thing he came because Bill Sharman, his backcourt mate with the Celtics, was there to wish him well, as were former HC coach and current UConn assistant George Blaney, college president emeritus the Rev. John E. Brooks, and members of the committee including Laska, Kaufman and Dee Rowe. There were many top basketball minds in the room.

All will be eager to see what New Jersey sculptor Brian Hanlon does with Cousy, who came to HC as a humble son of immigrants and parlayed his talents as a point guard into a successful career that earned him the nickname “Mr. Basketball.”

Hanlon said he will depict a slightly older player than the one who played for HC, with him dribbling on a parquet floor, a nod to the professional basketball career that awaited Cousy after he left school. The seven-foot statue will cost six figures and be paid for with donations, according to Tony Froio, the legal counsel to the committee and a former HC baseball player.

Cousy expects that it will be odd to see himself cast in bronze.

“It’s got to be spooky to look up and see a statue (of yourself),” he said. “It’s going to be a little strange and bizarre.”

He said he used to kid Red Auerbach about his statue at Faneuil Hall in Boston, saying it made the pigeons happy. Like Auerbach, the 78-year-old Cousy will be cast in bronze while still alive.

“It seems appropriate that when you’re sight-seeing somewhere, and you look up at a statue, that you expect that the subject has long gone to — in my case — the great golf course in the sky,” Cousy said. He talked about enduring hard times as he grew up in New York before coming to HC. In 1966, after his playing days, he visited the farm in France where his father was raised. Meeting his three uncles for the first time, he saw that they lived in a house with earthen floors and no electricity.

“I had always been told I had been born 20 years too soon (to better cash in on his basketball talents),” Cousy said. “I was the highest-paid player in the league, and in my last year I made $35,000. But if I’m born 20 years sooner, I’m picking potatoes on that farm and living in a little broken-down farmhouse.” No statue, no nothing.

Instead, he became one of the greatest basketball players ever and one of Worcester’s most prominent citizens. He’s hoping his statue doesn’t just reflect personal achievement, but stands for all that Holy Cross has accomplished in sports.

“With a limited recruiting budget and limited television exposure, and graduating 98 percent of its student-athletes, what Holy Cross has established is rather remarkable,” Cousy said. “If anyone looking at my statue is reminded of this sports legacy, I would be a happy camper if I’m on either side of the grass, quite frankly.”

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