Tom Rowe

Contributor

Had Mr. Whipple been blessed with hands like Tom Seary he would have been allowed to squeeze the Charmin for as long as he wanted. And, if boxing great Roberto Duran had been similarly endowed, he probably would have begun tickling the ivories as a concert pianist instead of becoming the punishing Panamanian pugilist known forever as “Hands of Stone.”

By now I think you’ve got the picture – Seary could catch and release a newborn bird without it ever making a peep or getting into harm’s way. And by soft I don’t mean to denigrate and compare those hands to a baby’s posterior, but to impress upon you that once an athletic ball was thrown his way, that object was to not only land gently in those outstretched palms, but with the assurance that nothing of this world was going to loosen it from his grasp.

That God-given talent enabled him to excel in all three sports he starred in as a Norwich High School athlete. A three-year letterman on the baseball diamond, Seary started two years each on the football gridiron and basketball hardwoods. Although an all-star in all three endeavors, it was his outstanding success as a football split end that enabled him to become one of the newest inductees into the eighth annual Norwich High School Sports Hall of Fame.