Remembering legendary St. Mark's football, baseball coach Henry Large
The St. Mark’s School campus still looks the same, softly nestled in the small countrified burg of Southborough, the school still at work at the daily task of lofty educational reaches and overall growth and wellness of its students.
Looks the same, but St. Mark’s doesn’t quite feel the same.
Henry Large, at 81, passed away on May 10. You could play word games with his name. Larger than life. Go ahead. It would fit; it would be apropos. It would be true.
Henry Large. Larger than life.
That life, the St. Mark’s part of it, began in 1965. Large had played football and baseball quite well at Princeton, did a tour of duty in the Marines, earned Master’s degrees from Northeastern and Boston University and got hired by St. Mark’s.
There was the classroom, and there were the roaming playing fields. Large soaked it up. It gave him chills. He fell in love with the place. It was a two-way street.
He became head football and baseball coach. In 2010, he stepped back, but missed coaching and wanted to stay connect. So he became an assistant coach for both sports until 2020.
He was quite a presence, this man. “Henry was someone that made a lasting impression from the moment you met him,” said John Levandowski, the school’s athletic director. “He had an outgoing personality. He was adored by the kids. He was so genuine, so straightforward.”
Large had suffered a stroke in 2017. He also had throat cancer and spoke through a voice box set in his larynx. None of it could deter the six-feet-4, athletic looking Large from showing up at the baseball and football games. He just had to get to a field. “Just this past season he came to a couple of football games,” said Levandowski.
More recently, assistant baseball coach Carl Corazzini recalled “Henry coming to one of our early season practices and sitting on the bench. He dropped in, then dropped out.” Henry being Henry, kicking adversity in the butt.
In retrospect, who could have been surprised? It was an old habit – perusing the fields – more than a half century in the making. It was Large’s lifeblood. Every step of the 250 acres. It filled him with happiness.
“It brought him joy to see the kids practice or play a game,” said Levandowski, “even during his illness. Henry was tough. He gutted it out.”
“Henry made an impact on the students, faculty and community,” said Corazzini, who is also the school’s head hockey coach and a Framingham hockey legend who starred at. St. Sebastian’s, BU and made it to the NHL.
Marlborough homeboy Bob Brennan, who coached the semi-pro Marlborough Shamrocks to multiple national football titles, coached the St. Mark’s football team for several seasons. Brennan made sure to keep Large on the staff. “We’d talk football in my office. Everyone listened when Henry talked.”
“Henry was one of finest human beings I ever met,” said Ron Calagione, the current baseball coach at St. Mark’s who played for Large.
Few, if any, knew Large better than Mari Quirk, his partner for the past 30 or so years. “Henry purely loved what he did,” said Quirk, a Framingham native who attended Marian High. “He’d get up and was excited to get to school. We met in the late 70s. My son, John, played for him.”
Large kept taking life’s punches. Congestive heart problems set in. The voice problem never relented. He’d taken a bad fall four days before he died. “The last year of his life was difficult,” said Quirk.
She understood Henry’s grip on the school. “Who didn’t love Henry?” said Quirk. “He was a unique giving, loving man.”
As to how she’s holding up, she said, softly, emotionally “I’m okay, but it’s tough.”
And a lasting reminisce of the man she cherished? “Henry was very accepting. He accepted everyone for who they were. He was a catalyst to goodness. Someone everyone wanted to be around.
“He was quite a man.”
Lenny Megliola can be reached at lennymegs41@gmail.com. Follow on Twitter @lennymegs.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Remembering St. Mark's legend Henry Large
