Anthony (Tony) Lavelli, Jr.

Anthony (Tony) Lavelli, Jr.. , Tony Lavelli's love of basketball began when his father, a contractor, put an orange crate on a pole for him in the back yard of their house at 37 Spring Street where he lived for most of his life. By 1944, when he was a senior at Somerville High, Tony captained his team to the Class A Tech Tourney Championship where he averaged twenty points per game before ten thousand fans in the Boston Garden. He was voted to the high school basketball "All New England Team." , While at Yale University from 1946-1949, his scoring total of 1,964 points, including 671 in his senior year, set a new national collegiate record. He became the only college player voted to the All-American Team as a freshman, sophomore, and senior. In his senior year at Yale, Lavelli was named "Collegiate Player of the Year" in leading Yale to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Life Magazine labelled Lavelli's hook shot "the most spectacular offensive weapon in college basketball history." His basketball skills led him to be the #1 draft choice of the Boston Celtics in 1949. He also played with the New York Knickerbockers and the collegiate All-American team which, for several years, toured the world with the Harlem Globetrotters. , Lavelli was a Yale Music major and an accomplished musician. During half-time at Celtic games, he entertained fans with his accordion, becoming cited at the only player to have his performances covered in both the Sports and Entertainment sections of the newspapers on the same day. President Dwight Eisenhower, in 1959, named him ambassador for the President's Council on Youth Fitness. He was elected to the Somerville High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1978. , On this very ground, young Tony Lavelli practiced underhand lay-ups, foul shots, and every other basketball shot ever used in the history of the game. It is fitting that as we pay tribute to Tony Lavelli's accomplishments, we also rededicate this space to the youth of Somerville so they may feel inspired as they play out their own dreams on these courts in the shadow of one of their own who will always remain a Somerville and New England sports legend. , "No one who has really touched a heart can ever pass away." Ellen Brennerman