‘In the flesh’ sports hero mourned Duffy a semipro star, Caribou High coach

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Friends and colleagues are mourning the death of one of the legendary athletes and coaches in Maine sports history, Caribou’s Gerald “Gerry” Duffy.

Duffy died in Portland on Friday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.

“Gerry and [Millinocket’s] Jimmy DiFrederico were my first in-the-flesh sports heroes,” said Maine basketball commissioner Peter Webb, who grew up in Houlton during the 1950s when Duffy was starring as a semipro baseball player in the region.

“In the last 60-plus years, Gerry Duffy truly is in the upper echelon of our sports legends in Maine. He was an unbelievable athlete.”

But Duffy is perhaps best known for coaching the Caribou High School boys basketball team to its lone Class LL (now Class A) state championship in 1969. The Vikings edged Westbrook 65-63 in that year’s state final at the Bangor Auditorium, a game decided by Mike Thurston’s historic buzzer-beating shot from midcourt.

“You don’t realize it when you’re 17 or 18 years old, but looking back Gerry always kept basketball fun,” said Thurston, a three-year basketball starter under Duffy at Caribou. “He made practices fun, he made games fun, and he was a really good coach.”

A Korean War veteran, Duffy had the air of a disciplinarian on the sidelines.

“The kids respected him,” said Dwight Hunter, Caribou High’s athletic director during Duffy’s coaching tenure. “He was a hard-nosed guy, but he was kind of a pussycat underneath.”

“If you did something he didn’t like or didn’t think was acceptable, he’d let you know because he wanted everything to be top-shelf,” said Thurston. “He was a wonderful man. I will be forever grateful to him for making basketball fun for me, and I didn’t have a clue at the time he was doing it.”

Duffy began coaching at Danforth in 1957 while still taking courses at Ricker College in Houlton. Two years later, he moved on to Sherman, remaining there from 1959 to 1962.

Duffy then coached at Limestone for five years before moving to Caribou, where he guided the Vikings from 1967 to 1988. Over his 31 years as a high school basketball coach, he compiled a 373-151 record, a winning percentage of .712.

“First of all, Gerry was a good man,” said Hunter. “He was a hard worker, and he was very, very optimistic, which carried over to his players. He gave us a good, strong program, and gave us the coaching stability that is so important to having a good program.”

In addition to the 1969 state championship Duffy also led Caribou to the 1975 Eastern Maine title and guided the Vikings to four consecutive appearances in the Eastern Maine Class A final from 1980 through 1983.

That run, which included three consecutive undefeated regular seasons in 1980, 1981 and 1982, was capped off in 1983 when the Vikings won the regional title and advanced to the state final against South Portland. With starting point guard Tony Michaud sidelined due to mononucleosis, Caribou fell to South Portland 66-49 in that 1983 state game.

While at Caribou, Duffy’s teams compiled a regular season record of 247-137, and during those 22 years the Vikings had just four losing campaigns.

“Gerry was a no-nonsense guy and his Caribou record was about as impressive as they come,” said Webb.

“Between Dwight Hunter being such an outstanding athletic director and Gerry Duffy as the coach, Caribou kids knew that if they were going to play for Mr. Duffy in Caribou, they at least had to be a good boy, and it worked.”

Duffy also coached soccer at Caribou and coached baseball at Sherman and Limestone, for 14 years at Caribou, and for six years during two stints at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, most recently from 1992 to 1995.

He was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Maine Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001.

“I’ll never forget watching him talk to a kid one day after he came back to the bench shaking his head after a called third strike,” Webb said. “He said, ‘Crab about a lot of things, but don’t you or anybody else ever come back after a called third strike and criticize the umpire, because if it’s close enough to call, then swing the bat,’ because Gerry was always an aggressive hitter.”

Duffy also was honored by the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches in 1990 with that organization’s Contributor Award, presented annually to a person for his or her contributions to high school basketball in the state.

He also was an active member of Board 150 of the International Association of Approved Basketball officials, the Northern Maine Board of Soccer Officials, and the Northern Maine Board of Approved Umpires.

A member of the Maine Coaches Association and the first president of the Caribou Little League, Duffy also served on the Governor’s Council on Sports and Physical Fitness from 1978 to 1982.

But for all of Duffy’s success and contributions to the Maine sporting community once his own playing days ended, he likely was an even more impressive athlete.

An East Millinocket native, Duffy lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and track for three years at Orono High School before graduating in 1948. He earned All-Eastern Maine and All-State recognition in football, was a Class M all-tournament choice in basketball, and was an 11-foot pole-vaulter.

A strong-armed catcher and shortstop, Duffy later turned down an opportunity to join the Boston Braves organization and went on to star in the semipro baseball ranks with the Houlton Collegians and Woodstock Lions in the Maine-New Brunswick Baseball League during the 1950s.

It was in Woodstock where Duffy met his wife of more than 52 years, Jean. They were married in 1954 and raised four children together.

“He was quiet when he coached, and when he played baseball he was the same way,” said Al Hackett of Veazie, another former semipro baseball player. “He wasn’t a rah-rah guy, but he was very intense, a great competitor.”

That competitive nature helped Duffy win five Maine-New Brunswick Baseball League batting titles and eventually earn entry into the New Brunswick Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995.

“Mr. Duffy came to Houlton as an 18-year-old shortstop when most of the players back then were from the outside because big league scouts would furnish teams for the league,” said Webb. “With all those players and pitching wizards from New York and places like that, Mr. Duffy still led the league in batting, home runs, and RBIs.

“As good a baseball player as he was, I really believe that if he played today – or 20 years ago if there were 32 teams back then – I really believe Gerry Duffy would have had a 10- or 12-year major league career,” Webb said.

Friends may call 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Monday at Mockler Funeral Home, 24 Reservoir St., Caribou. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 20, at Holy Rosary Catholic Church with the Very Rev. Jean-Paul Labrie officiating. Spring interment will be at the Northern Maine Veterans’ Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, those who wish may make donations to the Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute, MMC Development Office, 22 Bramhall St., Portland 04102.