Derby will be naming a girls’ softball field after William ‘Red’ Clynch during a ceremony scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 2).
The event is at the Ryan Athletic Complex in Derby.
Clynch was a beloved figure in Derby and influenced generations of city residents during his decades of involvement in youth sports.
Clynch died last September at the age of 80. The dedication ceremony is a way to officially mark Clynch’s efforts to make Derby a better place.
The dedication was endorsed awhile back by both the town’s Parks and Recreation Commission along with the city’s Board of Aldermen.
“Red was the best of what Derby had to offer. He loved the youth of this town and being involved in sports,” said Ron Sill, a member of the Board of Aldermen.
“He was everywhere. He belonged to all the organizations, but he was really involved in sports. Girls softball was his niche,” Sill said. “Anybody that ever played for Red would tell you not only was he a great coach, but he was the greatest guy.”
Born in Derby and nicknamed “Red” at an early age for his blazing hair and rosy cheeks, Clynch worked for 30 years at United Illuminating back when it had a glorious office building on Elizabeth Street.
Clynch’s roots in Derby ran deep. There’s a plaque in the Derby Public Works Department for his grandfather, who worked for the DPW and died in an accident.
In addition to decades of service work for recreation and youth sports programs, Clynch was a presence in Derby politics and served on the Derby Board of Aldermen.
Clynch played sports in Derby as a kid, but a medical condition prevented him from playing while at Derby High School, according to Jack Walsh, a lifelong Derby resident and a former recreation commissioner.
Clynch lived on Smith Street on Derby’s west side, around the corner from where Walsh grew up. Clynch’s back yard abutted the Lafayette Athletic Club, and the city’s first Little League field was practically Clynch’s back yard.
“He was a good athlete early on. The story is I understand it is that when he got to high school, he was diagnosed with a heart condition which kept him from playing sports,” Walsh said. “Red was a sports guy. It devastated him.”
Clynch turned his attention to coaching and mentoring Derby athletes. That was his passion, along with rooting for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame University.
He coached women’s slowpitch softball for almost 25 years. In 2004, he was inducted into the Connecticut A.S.A. Slow Pitch Hall of Fame.
From a story on the dedication published in the Hartford Courant:
“Clynch was one of the pioneers of women’s slow pitch softball, managing women’s teams for 24 years, mainly with Healey Motors Subaruettes of Derby, Clynch’s teams were perennial participants in the state tournament.
His teams won nine Valley Women’s League titles from 1978 – 1991 and qualified for the Class A state tournament each season during that time, winning the title in 1982. They also made four trips to the New England regional tournament in that span.”
Walsh summed it up: “He was a great guy. Red was a lifelong Derby guy.”
The field-naming ceremony will be at the softball field in the Ryan Athletic Complex on Nutmeg Avenue (around the corner from Derby Neck Library on Hawthorne Avenue). Members of Clynch’s family are expected to be in attendance.
