SAC Park: The Legacy Of A Close-Knit Club For Boys

By Jan Howard

The Social and Athletic Club that flourished here for over 30 years may no longer exist as a club for Newtown boys, but its land and clubhouse are still benefiting the children and residents of this community.

Popularly called SAC, the club originated in 1946 and was incorporated in 1948 as a nonsectarian, self-sustaining organization to promote the health, social, athletic, and character development of boys in Newtown.

Membership consisted of boys 10 to 20 years of age who were elected to membership on the basis of character qualifications. The boys were required to work to be active members. If they were away at school or in the military, they were considered inactive. For legal purposes, there was a group of 40 to 45 adults as sustaining members. Annual dues were $1 for boys ages 10 to 16, $2 for 16 and over, and $10 for sustaining members.

The club’s activities took place in its own SAC Park. Major projects were made possible through contributions from interested townspeople and one benefit a year.

SAC Park still exists today, just past the Sandy Hook Firehouse on Riverside Road, and resident George Lockwood, a former member of SAC as a boy and as an adult, is still involved as an overseer of the property.   

“SAC still exists today on paper,” Mr Lockwood said recently. “We own the property, which is tax exempt because we are a non-profit organization.” Many residents mistakenly think the town owns the property, he noted.

The SAC fields are now used and maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department for sports programs, he noted, and its former clubhouse, where the boys played basketball or ping pong and other games, is leased to Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue for $1. The ponds where the boys swam or skated also exist today but are now used mostly for skating. Fire companies use the property for picnics and ball games, Mr Lockwood said, and community groups may use the property free of charge as long as they have insurance.

“I was ten when I joined SAC,” Mr Lockwood said. “I was one of the first to join.”

Sixty to 70 boys were involved, he said. “All the boys in Newtown could join.” He estimates there are about ten members still living in Newtown.

The late Wilton and Florence Lackaye founded the club. “They liked kids,” Mr Lockwood said. “They put a lot of time and effort into it.” Also among sustaining members were the late Paul Smith, then editor of The Newtown Bee, and the late Hawley Warner. “They did a lot for it,” Mr Lockwood noted.

On April 28, 1946, seven boys gathered at the Lackayes’ home in Sandy Hook for SAC’s first meeting. Jack Walkins was elected the first president, and the group arranged to meet weekly in Glover Hall (later the Sandy Hook Firehouse). Through the years, the boys enjoyed sports, picnics and parties, swimming, and attending stock car races, among other activities. They hosted an annual benefit movie to raise funds, and prizes were awarded to members who sold the most tickets.

In 1949, there were 70 active members, 25 sustaining members, and 15 members who acted as coaches and referees. What had begun in Sandy Hook with seven youngsters became a townwide, active organization.

Mr Lockwood speaks fondly of Mr and Mrs Lackaye, explaining that their interest and concern had great impact on local boys’ lives. “No one ever had a bad word for them,” he said. Their involvement with sports and other activities kept the boys off the streets and out of trouble, he noted. “The Lackayes taught the boys manners and what to do at home. We had no trouble here like other towns.”

  In 1949 SAC acquired from Harold Bassett the title to eight acres of land on Riverside Road for athletic fields. The purchase was a major undertaking, with SAC members earning a large part of the funds to make the purchase. The boys began work at once to transform the land into a baseball diamond, with plenty of space for football and other activities. It became known as SAC Park.

On June 9, 1950, The Bee reported on the annual meeting of sustaining members that included an inspection of the field and new field house. The field house was nearing completion and would provide ample space for meetings and storage of equipment. Its cupola housed one of the oldest school bells in the district, in memory of the late Carrie E. Hall.

In April of 1951 SAC made the final payment of the note outstanding on SAC Park. While there was no formal ceremony of burning the mortgage, the Sustaining Group handed over $200 and received the release.

At that time, work on the property was being steadily pushed forward. Contractor John Stefanko had made and erected the permanent backstop, and three new signs marking the park entrance had been painted and erected.

Some strategy went into the purchase of a new lime-lining machine. Mr Cascio of Sandy Hook Plumbing Supply took a large bundle of rags to Bridgeport, and the proceeds came within 34 cents of paying for the new machine.

Improvements were always being made to the property. In October 1951, a project long in the planning stage moved nearer fruition when the Hansen Lake Dredging Company moved its dragline to SAC Park to start work on the swimming pond. The boys completed the preparation work by hand over a period of several weeks. In June 1953 the Sustaining Group voted to set aside money to buy fencing for the marsh side of the Little League baseball field.

The clubhouse, Mr Lockwood said, was similar to a small gym. “I was always up there. There was always something going on, basketball, baseball, or ping pong.”

The club members were mainly involved with sports and working on the fields after the property was purchased, Mr Lockwood said.

Club members could also be counted on to help out in times of trouble or with civic work projects. On January 26, 1951, The Bee reported SAC members had helped out at the home of H.C. Honegger, cleaning up the devastation caused to the woodland by a hurricane.

The club also kept in touch with members who were in the military and sent packages to them during the Korean Conflict, Mr Lockwood said. In June 1953, the sustaining members voted to continue the practice of sending Christmas packages to members in the service.

In October 1950, 28 Sackers, as the club members were called, were away, either serving in the military or attending out-of-town schools and colleges. Because of this, active membership in the club decreased, causing curtailment of many of its activities.

Several of the club’s members had been recalled to active duty after serving three-year enlistments, including Randall Watkins, John Romaine, Clarence Worth, Douglas Wheeler, Joseph Kowalkowski, and Harold Miles, Jr. Other former members had enlisted in the summer, including Kenneth Hendrix, Donald Ingram, Francis Carroll, Tom Peterson, John Pendergast, Richard Dean, Earl Lockwood, Richard Huser, and Jack Watkins.

“Mrs Lackeye loved the boys in the service. They were just like her family,” Mr Lockwood said. “She was always sending them packages, and, if they needed money, she sent them money.”

In January of 1951, former members of SAC basketball squads returned to play with their former teammates. One of them was Francis Carroll, a paratrooper, who stepped back into his #11 uniform and his old position at guard. Also returning was Ray Milot, a student at Notre Dame, who found his #61 shirt waiting for him and racked up 36 points in the two games he played.

Public Support

SAC sometimes received gifts and donations from the public. Members got a lot of pleasure out of a TV set that was a gift from Mrs Isabel Davis in memory of her late husband, Edward H. Davis of Sandy Hook. The boys also enjoyed outdoor furniture donated by Bayard and Lauretta Hoppin. In March 1950, the Lions Club presented a set of baseball bags, including home plate and pitcher’s plate, to the SAC for use at its baseball diamond.

In July 1950 a donation of $100 was received from Mrs Samuel E. Stern of New York City in memory of her husband. Known as the S.E. Stern Award, it would be earmarked to the boy who had shown the most all-around improvement in the past year. In August it was awarded to 11-year-old David Carmody, son of Postmaster and Mrs Arthur W. Carmody of Sandy Hook.

The Letter

In February of 1951, Mr Lockwood, nicknamed Pudge, wrote a tongue-in-cheek letter to the editor of the Saturday Evening Post that appeared in its February 10 issue. In the letter, Pudge warned the publication against over-free use of the boys’ SAC letters. The letters appeared, he wrote the editor, on jerseys worn by the St Ambrose College football squad, pictured in the November 4 issue, and were again used to identify the Strategic Air Command in the December 30 issue.

“Our members do not object to adopting as Mascot either football players or fliers,” Mr Lockwood’s letter stated, “but as our clubhouse measures only 18 by 20 feet, we do not feel that we would have room for both.” As proof of priority in use of the letters SAC, he had enclosed a snapshot of the Sandy Hook club’s first football squad, taken in 1946. The magazine reproduced that photograph along with the letter, and SAC received a check from the magazine for $25, Mr Lockwood noted.

SAC’s 30th

In May 1976 SAC members celebrated the club’s 30th anniversary with a surprise party highlighted by a special cake decorated by Mrs Robert Knapp. The Bee reported the cake “was a work of art, almost too beautiful to cut up. After a long debate of about two seconds, the eaters outvoted the art lovers and fell on the cake like wolves on the fold.”

In June, the newspaper reported on “a significant milestone in the long history of SAC” when Mr Lackaye announced his retirement as executive director at the 30th anniversary meeting of the Sustaining Group at SAC Park. The story noted that Mr and Mrs Lackaye had started the club as “a place where young boys in the neighborhood could come together for games and companionship.”

It described Mr Lackaye as a leader and friend of a widening circle of youth of the town, and coach for baseball and basketball teams that earned an enviable record of wins in competition with those from surrounding towns.

To Mr Lackaye’s credit, the story said, with the cooperation of Mrs Lackaye, SAC had its own clubhouse, two baseball diamonds, and a pond for swimming and skating. The paper went on to say that his brand of coaching not only made able basketball and baseball players but created a friendship and a type of leadership that earned him the affectionate but respected title of “Papeeta.” He had received a standing ovation for his years of work with the club.

Mr and Mrs Lackaye had received several previous accolades for their work with Newtown boys. Among them were a Distinguished Service Award from the Charles Howard Peck Post, VFW, and a Resolution of Appreciation from the SAC Board of Directors in appreciation of their years of leadership and work on the club’s behalf.

“John McCarthy and I promised the Lackayes that we would take care of the clubhouse and the land,” Mr Lockwood said. They continue to live up to that promise.

(Some information for this story was found in the League of Women Voters’ book, Newtown Connecticut Past and Present.)