Boston Red Sox first baseman Harry Agganis (Wheelock’54) at spring training camp in Sarasota, Fla., March 4, 1955. Agganis died just three months later, at age 26, of a pulmonary embolism. Photo via AP/Harry Harris

Sports

Remembering the Life and Legacy of BU Alum Harry Agganis, 70 Years After His Death

The star athlete was being recruited to play both professional football and baseball by the time he was a junior

It was 70 years ago this week that one of BU’s most famous alums—Harry Agganis, the athlete known as the “Golden Greek”—died unexpectedly at the age of 26. At the time of his death from a pulmonary embolism on June 27, 1955, Agganis (Wheelock’54) was a first baseman with the Boston Red Sox. Thousands filed past his coffin at the Greek Orthodox Church in Lynn, Mass., where his funeral was held, and an estimated 20,000 more lined the route to the cemetery. Flags across the region flew at half-mast. 

Those now passing by Agganis Arena, the Comm Ave athletic complex named in his honor when it opened in 2004, might be puzzled by the bronze statue of Agganis by the entrance. His left arm is drawn back, as if just about to launch a football. Turns out, Agganis was as adept on the gridiron as he was on the baseball field. 

Born Aristotle George Agganis, he was the youngest of seven in a family of Greek immigrants. 

His rise to sports stardom began early; as an All-American quarterback at Lynn Classical High School—an honorific given to outstanding amateur athletes—Agganis was already used to playing for crowds of upwards of 20,000 fans. He was a “double-pronged” athlete, and while the left-hander could play a formidable game of baseball, it was in football that he excelled in high school. 

“Agganis was the whole package—he was a student, he was an athlete, but he really was a role model as well. It was pretty clear football was considered his best sport,” says Paul Halloran, executive director of the Agganis Foundation All-Star Games, which provides college scholarships to high school student athletes. 

Despite receiving offers from nearly 70 universities around the country (including Notre Dame) to play baseball and/or football, Agganis wanted to stay close to his family. He opted for BU, where he mostly played quarterback on the (now-shuttered) varsity football team. 

“His mother was a widow at that point,” Halloran says, “and he wanted to remain close to her.” 

During his sophomore year, in 1949, Agganis made 15 touchdown passes and threw for 1,042 yards, breaking a BU record. 

He left BU to serve in the US Marines from 1950 to 1951. He’d been activated in the Marine Corps Reserve and could have avoided service on a dependency clause. But he didn’t take that route. At Camp Lejeune, Agganis played both baseball and football. He was named MVP of the National Baseball Congress and earned All-Marine and All-Navy honors in football.

Returning to BU a year later, he was once again named to the All-American team. By the time he graduated, in 1954, he had amassed 15 University records and was the first two-time selection as BU’s Athlete of the Year. He was inducted into the BU Hall of Fame at graduation, and—just like at Lynn Classical—his number 33 jersey was retired.

“He only had three years of football at BU—such a short athletic career. For people to still be talking about him today [70 years later] shows you the impact of what kind of person he was and what he did with the short period he was alive,” says the Golden Greek’s great-nephew Greg Agganis (SHA’92), owner of Penthouse Properties, a Boston real estate development and brokerage company.

By his BU junior year, Agganis was being recruited to play both professional football and baseball. He was the number-one pick for the Cleveland Browns, but turned down a $50,000 offer to play quarterback and instead signed with the Boston Red Sox so he could stay close to his mother. 

Agganis played Triple-A baseball with the Red Sox in 1953 while he was still a BU student, then made the major league in 1954. He went on to break a 25-year-old record for most home runs hit by a left-handed player at Fenway Park (8 of his 11 for the season). The day he graduated from BU, he hit the winning home run at Fenway in a game against the Detroit Tigers before heading over to Braves Field (now Nickerson Field), where he traded his Red Sox uniform for a cap and gown. 

In May 1955, his second season with the Red Sox, the baseball star was hospitalized with pneumonia for 10 days. He soon rejoined the team, only to be rehospitalized with a blood clot weeks later. He died of a pulmonary embolism on June 27, 1955. 

Honors and legacy

In the video above, watch BU’s greatest athlete, Harry Agganis (Wheelock’54), in action. The University’s first All-American in football, he was drafted by the NFL’s Cleveland Browns in 1952, but chose to play baseball instead, signing with the Boston Red Sox. Historic photos by BU Photography

Today, in addition to the bronze statue and the BU arena that bears his name, Agganis lives on through the philanthropic work of the Agganis Foundation, which hosts annual All-Star Games that raise funds for scholarships. Those games feature girls’ and boys’ lacrosse, soccer, and basketball, as well as softball and football.

“There are several memorials to him,” Halloran says. “We like to humbly think at the foundation that the best memorial is the more than 1,000 kids who have gotten a college scholarship in his name. The foundation exists to perpetuate Agganis’ legacy by presenting these scholarships. I think for those kids, it does stick with them.” 

In 2012, Greg Agganis produced Agganis: The Golden Greek—Excellence to the End, a documentary that includes interviews with friends and teammates. 

Today, Greg Agganis serves on BU’s Athletic Director’s Council and together with his family, has established several endowments to support varsity student-athletes: the Agganis Family Endowment, the Harry Agganis Scholarship, the Agganis Family Scholarship, and the Gregory J. Agganis Endowed Scholarship at the BU School of Hospitality Administration. 

“My goal is to continue my history of BU and my great-uncle’s through the athletic department,” he says.

Just last week, he and his father, Mike Agganis (Wheelock’67)—Harry’s nephew and also a generous benefactor of BU student-athletes—returned to campus, along with members of the United States Marine Corps, for a daylong celebration of the Golden Greek. The event culminated in a ceremony at Fenway Park recognizing the induction of Harry Agganis into the United States Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.

During their visit to BU, the group was welcomed by President Melissa Gilliam and given a tour of Agganis Arena that was also attended by BU ROTC members.

“Harry’s legacy remains strong, and we are incredibly grateful for all the Agganis family means to BU,” Gilliam told the assembled crowd. “We are so proud to claim him as one of our University’s all-time greats.”