Sandy Hook Men Hope To Revive Athletic Club

By Steve Bigham

Two Sandy Hook men are heading up an effort to revive the Boys’ Social and Athletic Club of Sandy Hook (SAC), which has been defunct over 20 years.

Robert Knapp, a SAC member as a kid, and Tony DiVanno say the Riverside Road club was a great experience for the youth of Newtown during its 30-year run. Now is the time to bring back SAC, they say. The big difference this time around, however, is that the club would be open to both boys and girls.

“What we’re trying to do is get the club going again,” Mr Knapp said Tuesday. “The property is still in corporation. It’s still owned by the membership. Status of the club has not changed.”

The objectives of the club would remain the same, too: develop kids’ social awareness and athletic skills through regular, structured interaction. The organization is dedicated to the interests and welfare of the children of Newtown.

SAC first opened in April of 1946 by Wilton Lackaye, who ran the club until his death in 1977. Although the club is no longer in operation, evidence of it still exists. Today, the giant red barn and baseball diamond still stand.

“We’re trying to gauge interest in bringing this back with some of the past members,” explained Mr DiVanno.

Local attorney, Tim Holian, a past SAC member, is also involved in efforts to bring the club back.

Local organizers are seeking those residents who are interested in participating in SAC’s reformation. For more information, contact Robert Knapp at 270-9317 or Tony DiVanno at 426-4418.

A Brief SAC History

In the early 1940s, Wilton Lackaye and his wife, Florence, retired from the vaudeville stage and opened up a little antiques shop in Sandy Hook. Concerned by the carryings on of some wayward young boys in town, Mr Lackaye decided to open up an athletic and social club. It first opened in the Sandy Hook firehouse, but Mr Lackaye soon purchased some land along Riverside Road where he put up a small wooden clubhouse and built a baseball field.

Over the next 25 years Mr Lackaye’s SAC would affect the lives of hundreds of Sandy Hook youths as they gathered together every Thursday night for club meetings, learned to play baseball, basketball, six-man football, boxing, wrestling, swimming, fishing, and countless other sports and recreational activities. The club even competed against different towns in different sports.

Mr Lackaye had no children of his own, but through SAC became a patriarch to generations of young athletes.

Many Newtown residents, including Robert Knapp, still have fond memories of Mr Lackaye and the club he helped start.

“If he wasn’t around I don’t know what my childhood would have been like,” said longtime Sandy Hook resident Fred Terrill. “I remember when it started, I was eight and too young to join. You had to be ten. I couldn’t wait. When I finally did join, I played baseball with him until I was about 21. Wilton Lackaye was a great man. Everything he did was for the kids.”

When Mr Lackaye died there was no one able to take his place – no one could donate the kind of money to make it all possible. In 1996, he was inducted into the Newtown Sports Hall of Fame.

Those seeking to revive SAC are looking for adults to provide leadership, focus, and general support for the club’s activities.