Frank Benenati

Conrtibutor

Let’s start this piece with a prediction by Bob Van Tine (The Norwich Sun Sports Editor and Norwich High School Sports Hall of Fame 2013 inductee) prior to the school year. “When the curtain rings down on the 1952-53 NHS sports season, the name of Don Chirlin will be placed in the record books alongside the best three-sport athletes in the school’s colorful athletic history. The lanky senior has won fame as a defensive halfback in football, a pivoteer in basketball and a smooth-fielding first sacker in baseball.”

Don, who was born in Fulton on March 31, 1936, began his formal schooling in Calais, ME as a 5-year-old first-grader, because the school didn’t have a kindergarten. Two years later in 1943, he arrived in Norwich when his father, Morrie, was transferred there to take over operation of The M.H. Fishman Co. store on South Broad Street. He got his start in competitive sports a few years later as a member of the YMCA junior basketball team. In his third year of “Y” ball, he was captain of the team, which ended up play with a record of 24-2 that included a victory over the West Branch Y of New York City. And, it was during this time that he teamed up with future NHSSPHOF mates Ed Ackley (2011), John Stewart (2012) and Ron Tyler (2014). This foursome would lead the Tornado to many victories, and the press dubbed them the “Whiz Kids.”