GC's Legendary Lacrosse Coach - Tom Nolan
By: William Keegan, Jr.

Town of Hempstead Lacrosse Championship, 1971

After speaking to some friends about Doc Dougherty and his continuing saga of strange behavior and resent antics, I had the urge to visit with an old friend and Garden City Lacrosse legend, Coach Tom Nolan. Fortunately, I was able to track him down through our mutual friend Barbara Hoffman.

Coach Nolan is currently living with his wife Joan in sunny Tucson, Arizona. However, his passion for Lacrosse has never waned. Since his move to Arizona, he coached Lacrosse at three schools and up until recently was the goalie coach at the University of Arizona.

Our phone conversation brought back some fond memories of how coach Nolan single-handedly started the Garden City Lacrosse craze and helped develop the program throughout Long Island. I was lucky enough to be a witness from the beginning.

It was in 1964, the summer before sixth grade, when my friend's mom asked if I wanted to join her son to attend tryouts for Ram's football and I jumped at the chance. When we got there, my friend and I, along with about thirty other kids, got our first glimpse of the man who, in his own quiet way, would introduce hundreds of kids to organized sports.

Tom Nolan and wife, Joan

Coach Nolan wasn't a big man or an intense rah-rah kind of guy. He was a low-keyed, deliberate and organized thinker. Somehow, he just seemed to have a knack of grabbing the attention and respect from a bunch of noisy eleven-year-olds and made it fun.

Coaching in the 1960's was very different than today. Only starters got the playing time and you only received a trophy if you had a winning season. In addition, we had to sell raffle tickets in order to raise money to purchase a bench warmer coat. Little did I know that the bench warmer would become an important part of my uniform. My dad traveled a lot and I grew up in a house of all women-on a block with not a lot of kids. So, when it came to sports, I was a little behind the learning curve. However, when I got into junior high and high school, thanks to my time with Coach Nolan, I got off the bench and saw a lot of game time.

Coach Tom Nolan

The following spring of sixth grade he introduced us to the game of Lacrosse. I vividly remember holding the all-wooden stick for the first time and how akward it felt. It took me awhile to catch on and again sat on the bench. Under Mr. Nolan's watchful-eye we always seemed to win big and we all shared in some playing time. It was a fun and uncomplicated time. That spring, we all went out and sold our raffle tickets to raise money to buy our Garden City Lacrosse jackets. Wearing that jacket was just the best! We were all blessed to be a part of a team, his team. It was a special time.

When eighth-grade came along, we all left Coach Nolan and moved on to play organized school sports and he moved on to introduce other kids to Lacrosse and the joy of organized sports.

When I drive by the Stratford School ball field and the football field behind Stewart School, I automatically think of him and how lucky I was to be a part of his team.

When I was old enough to join the work force, I would occasionally run into Mr. Nolan on the train and we would talk about the past and the team. Then we moved on to talk about the books we were reading. He was not only a coach, like me, he was a history buff as well.

It was great to hear his voice again and after a quick chat about the old days, we talked about his career as special effects and camera specialist at NBC TV and his paratrooper days in World War II.

Tom Nolan was born in the Bronx and, like many families, moved to Long Island where he attended Sewanhaka High School. At that time, Sewanhaka was one of the first schools to develop a Lacrosse program and he was hooked. After graduating high school he joined the famous Paratroopers 17th Airborne Division where he participated in Operation Varsity, one of the most dangerous air jumps of WWII. General Eisenhower called it "the most successful but deadliest jump of the war."

After the war, he met his wife Joan and they eventually moved to Kildare Road in the Estate section of Garden City and started a family. Always ahead of the learning curve, he chose a career in early days of TV and was lucky enough to work on major groundbreaking shows such as The Cid Caesar Show, The Tonight Show with Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, The Today Show as well as Saturday Night Live.

The Nolans have two children - Cheryl of Maine and Tom of Dallas and three grandsons - Sean, Thomas IV and Craig. His son Tom now carries the torch and is still active in Lacrosse.

It was great to visit with Coach Nolan and, on behalf of hundreds of kids, I was glad to have the opportunity thank him for his time and friendship. I hope we can speak again.