Steve Ludlow, class act

Anybody who's ever had C. Stephen Ludlow as either an English teacher or a tennis coach at Newington High School knows he's a great guy and a class act. Now the Hartford Courant's readers know, too, thanks to an act of kindness toward an arch-rival last week that got written up in today's paper:

Tom Chauvin called it one of the most moving experiences he's had in 34 years of coaching the girls tennis team at Bristol Eastern.

Following what Chauvin called an intense, closely contested 5-2 victory over rival Newington on Monday, he was talking with his players as they sat on the court. The victory gave Eastern at least a share of the CCC South championship. Then he noticed Newington coach Steve Ludlow walking toward his team with his players lined up and Chauvin quickly told his team to get up.

Ludlow handed Chauvin an envelope, which contained a donation to a [scholarship] fund that Bristol Eastern started in memory of former player Holly Getler, who died last summer at 22 after a lifelong battle with kidney disease. ... More than $100 was collected. [That's roughly 5 percent of the total amount that Eastern needs to reach its fundraising goal.]

"It blew us all away," Chauvin said. "I didn't know how he even knew about it. We've been chief rivals for years now. I call them the New York Yankees of our division.

"This is what sport is supposed to be about. What those 20 kids or so learned at that moment collectively, that is the learning value that will stay with them."

It makes me proud to be a Newington alum (and a Ludlow alum!).

P.S. It should be noted that Chauvin isn't exaggerating about the rivalry -- though I prefer to think of Bristol Eastern as the evil Yankees, and Newington as the lovable Red Sox. :) Actually, Michigan-Ohio State is probably a better analogy: like the Wolverines-Buckeyes football game, the Indians-Lancers tennis match is always the last game of the season, and it's a battle for the conference championship pretty much every year. But anyway, the point is, with CCC re-alignment diminishing the Newington-Southington rivalries in several sports, the NHS-BEHS rivalry in girls tennis is probably one of the biggest and fiercest old rivalries left. So this act of good sportsmanship and kindness by Mr. Ludlow and the Indians is all the more admirable against that backdrop.

Comments

[Joe Loy]

Excellent. / Yup, that's Mr. Ludlow all right. Just excellent.

[Jay Johnson]

Genuinely good people make me happy. Thanks for passing along a good story about folks trying to do right by others. It's refreshing.

[Bonnie]

Steve Ludlow is one of the people who make tennis a great sport and Newington a great town to live in.

[Jim]

You might also enjoy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=3372631

[jlr]

Lud was one of the greatest teachers I ever had. I just hope that I can live up to his example. Something tells me that my kids may not think so, but it's a goal for me to try to live up to.

That man is a real class act.

[Doodles]

Steve Ludlow was one of my favorite English teachers, and was also excellent in the years he worked on the spring musicals with Joe Treggor. Brings back very good memories, thanks for posting this.