Peckham’s legacy lives on
Jim Peckham’s friends made sure his legacy would carry on after his death.
Shortly after his passing in 2011, Peckham’s loyal legion of friends formed the Jim Peckham Scholarship Fund. It supports Massachusetts high school wrestlers who plan to wrestle in college and who have demonstrated excellence in wrestling, academics and personal character.
“It really was a collaboration of people getting there to get this going,” said Michael Stuer, a former standout wrestler at Lowell and Brown University. “Stephen Henry, Steve Biondolillo, Phil Grebinar, Tom Bartosek and myself were involved in initiating the scholarship. People just wanted to recognize Jim Peckham because he was the founder and often referred to as the father of wrestling in Massachusetts.”
Despite never having wrestled in high school or college, Peckham went on to become an Olympic wrestler and later coached a pair of U.S. Olympic teams. He is in a very select group as an inductee of the National Wrestling Hall Of Fame in Stillwater, Okla.
He would later coach at Emerson and Harvard and also headed up a wellknown wrestling club at the Boston Union.
“I was wrestling at North Carolina State and some of my friends were living up here,” said Rod Buttry, who would later coach at both Boston College and Bridgewater State. “I came up, spent a few days at the Boston Union and I liked what coach was doing. I had no place to stay and wound up living with coach and his family. I learned so many lessons from him that I was able to use in life.”
Greg Wilson knew exactly what Buttry was talking about. A Braintree native, Wilson lost his father at an early age and freely admits he was heading in the wrong direction until Peckham entered the picture.
Wilson became a star wrestler at Thayer Academy and later at Bridgewater State. The president of
Needham Electric Supply Corporation in Canton until the time of his retirement, Wilson wastes little time in crediting Peckham for turning his life around.
“Jim Peckham is the most influential man in my life,” said Wilson, whose son Ethan’s middle name is James in Peckham’s honor. “When I was 13-14 years old, I was heading in the wrong direction. I met coach Peckham and Colin Kilrain (who would go on to become a Vice Admiral in the Navy) at a wrestling camp and had I not met them then, I could have been dead or in jail.
“Coach couldn’t help but to go out of his way to help people and it didn’t have to be wrestlers. He just had a propensity for turning kids into better people. There are so many people who have the same story I have.”
Sean Harrington, the president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, was one of countless recipients of Peckham’s largess.
“I remember when I was wrestling at UMass-Lowell and lost a close match against Harvard,” Harrington said. “Coach was at Harvard and he came up to me after the match and gave me a few little tips. He’s just someone who carried himself with so much authority when he spoke. He was in it for all the right reasons.”
It’s these stories and many more which motivated so many to establish a scholarship fund in Peckham’s honor. The criteria for selection focuses around the essay, the individual’s proven track record of Peckham’s outstanding character traits such as integrity, passion towards helping others, an indefatigable work ethic, sense of community, and loyalty.
This year’s scholarship recipients, Antonios Sevastos of Mansfield and Marisol Nugent of Phillips Andover, were still in their pre-teens when Peckham passed away, but both knew plenty about Peckham.
“One of my youth coaches (Peter Holmes) wrestled for him, so I knew a little about him,” said Sevastos, who will wrestle at WPI. “I remember when I started reading about him, he talked about earning the right to win and our motto here is finding a way to win, so we had that in common.”
Just before writing her essay, Nugent researched Peckham and came away impressed with his selfless attitude. It served her well when she was sidelined with a major knee injury.
“I had just won the Super 32 tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, in October of 2018, then two months later, I tore my ACL,” said Nugent, who will wrestle at Lehigh. “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to wrestle. I remember reading about (Peckham) and how he gave back to the sport when he could have left after he finished wrestling.
“I decided to do the same thing. I helped start the first women’s wrestling club at Doughboy Wrestling and I worked with Jacque Davis at Boston Youth Wrestling.”
Even in his later years, Peckham still cast a powerful presence whenever he showed up at a meet. Former Whitman-Hanson and Bridgewater State wrestler Matthew Quimby remembers one of those experiences at the James Peckham Invitational wrestling tournament.
“I was officiating at the Peckham Tournament a few years back and coach was there,” said Quimby, the vice president of promotions for the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. “Coach gave a speech before the finals, talking about earning the right to win and what goes into that. When you think about how much coach did for the sport of wrestling, it’s pretty impressive.”
Those interested in contributing to the scholarship fund can do so by checks payable to the James C. Peckham “Earning the Right to Win” Scholarship Fund and mailed to Rene Canezin, 36 Hyde Avenue, Newton, Mass., 02458.
Anyone seeking information about the scholarship can contact at Wilson at wilgre98@gmail.com.