Fifty years ago this Oakmont alum helped the Spartans reach their first Clark Tournament final
Mike Richard
ATHOL — While he was best known early in his Oakmont basketball career as Mike Nolan's kid brother, Dan Nolan made a name for himself 50 years ago this week by helping the Spartans to their first-ever Clark Tournament final appearance.
"To this day, I'm still known as Mike Nolan's brother," said the 67-year-old Nolan. "I'm partial, but I've always thought Mike was the first really good basketball player Oakmont had."
Mike Nolan passed away in 2009 at the age of 57 following a battle with cancer. In 1970, he became the first Spartan hoop player to score more than 30 points in a game, netting 32 in an Oakmont win over Douglas in the Clark Tournament quarterfinals.
Besides Mike Nolan, that 1970 Oakmont team also featured Bill Fichtel, Jeff Hauger, Hugh Howard and Jim Krasawski. Later that winter, they made the first-ever appearance by a Spartan team in a district playoff game.
The Spartans lost to North Brookfield, 77-67, but late in the game coach Bill Wyman got a glimpse of a young sophomore by the name of Dan Nolan.
"I rarely walked onto the court where I wasn't the smallest guy out there," said Nolan, noting he was about 5-foot-7 or 5-8. "It wasn't until later in that season I got a little playing time."
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As a youngster, Dan would follow his older brother from their home on Leominster Street in Westminster to the playing fields and basketball courts near the Westminster Cracker factory.
"Where we grew up, we had those fields nearby, and the Swedberg family were our neighbors, so I grew up playing with all of those guys," he said, rattling off the names of Randy, Brian and Steve Swedberg.
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Older brother Mike was a varsity baseball player beginning his freshman year and in 1970 he played shortstop, while his sophomore brother Dan was the second baseman.
"I just remember that season my dad (John) loved to see us out there as the double-play combination," Dan said.
During his senior year at Oakmont in 1972, Nolan became the big gun on a basketball team that also included point guard Bill Foley, classmates Mike Hurd, Gary LeBlanc, Norman Wagner and Ron Reid, as well as a talented sophomore by the name of Chuck Wyman.
After a 12-7 regular season, the Spartans qualified for the Clark Tournament for the second time in three years, but faced pre-tourney favorite Leicester in the first round.
"Leicester was expected to win the whole thing and I remember we were small in comparison," Nolan said. "Gary LeBlanc and Chuck Wyman were our only big guys, so what Coach Wyman did was focus on defense. We played that famous Bill Wyman half-court press, man-to-man defense and I think we flustered them."
With Chuck Wyman leading the way with 20 points, and LeBlanc and Nolan adding 16 and 14, respectively, the Spartans shot 58% from the floor to upset the Wolverines, 65-55.
"I remember we were really hot that night and we didn't miss," Nolan said.
Moving on to the semifinals, Oakmont met up with Wachusett League foe Groton, a team it had lost to twice during the regular season by close scores.
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This time, the Spartans again stayed close with Groton throughout much of the game, although as Nolan recalled, "we were having a hard time finding the hoop."
With Groton holding a 30-29 lead after three quarters, coach Wyman came to his high scorer and lit a fire under him.
"I just remember in the huddle coach Wyman looked and me and said, 'You've got to do something out there,'" Nolan said. "That was one of the few times he loosened the grip (on defense) and suggest I try to go one-on-one a little more; get shots outside the normal offense."
Nolan went on a scoring binge, pumping in 15 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter to send the Spartans to their first Clark Tourney final with a 55-50 win.
In the championship, the Spartans faced a West Boylston team it had lost to during the regular season, 72-53. The Lions, having won five times in the previous eight years, were a formidable foe.
"Once again, we were the underdogs for the third straight game and weren't expected to win," said Nolan, "but we went out and played that scrappy defense."
He recalled coach Wyman set up a half-court, 3-2 trap defense for that final game.
"We used that to generate a bunch of turnovers and tried to control the tempo and stay close with them," Nolan said.
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With 5:28 left in the fourth quarter, Nolan completed an old-fashioned three-point play to tie the game at 47-47. However, West Boylston's Steve Flynn and teammate Dave Yahanian took over from there to take a 10-point lead with 2:15 remaining as the Lions captured a 65-58 win.
"We hung with them, but never were able to take control of the game," said Nolan, who wound up with a game-high 24 points.
"The Clark Tournament was a great event for us," he recalled. "It was so memorable, going into the big city, playing on a bigger court and going up against teams who were some of the best around."
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Following graduation, he attended Fitchburg State College for two years where he also played basketball, but then in 1974 decided to leave school and join the United States Air Force. He went on to graduate from the Defense Languages Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California.
"While I was there, I learned the Czech language, and ended up in Germany monitoring the Czech Air Force," he said.
During his four years of military service, he spent a lot of time playing basketball in Central California and while stationed in Germany.
Upon his return to the states, he was trained in wastewater operations at the University of Lowell. He worked as a wastewater operator for the City of Gardner for 12 years, as well as in Fitchburg, and for the past 30 years worked at Seaman Paper Co. in Otter River.
He and his wife Bridget live in Athol and are the parents of three sons, Sean, 41; Brian, 38; and Kevin, 34. The couple also has four grandchildren.
Nolan took up running several years ago and, after completing a number of short races, decided to try a marathon. He has since run in 15 marathons, including the Dublin Marathon in Ireland in 2012. He also admittedly plays a lot of golf at the Ellinwood Country Club.
In addition, he picked up what he called a "Covid hobby" learning to play the guitar.
"It's something I never did in my life," he said, "but one morning I woke up and decided this was something I wanted to do, maybe play some music."
(Do you have a suggestion for a future "Where are they Now" segment? Please contact Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Rd. Sandwich, MA 02563)
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