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Teacher, coach and broadcaster
"Harvard scored 16 points in the final 49 seconds," Herman recalled. He hasn't been back to Harvard Stadium since then because he's been busy with a different team - the Harvard-Yale game is played on the same day as Nantucket-Martha's Vineyard, and Herman's had more than a rooting interest in the Whalers for nearly four decades now. Beginning in 1970, Herman has been integral to Nantucket football either as a coach or broadcaster, forging a relationship to the team that is eclipsed only by head coach Vito Capizzo. His ties to the team are such that he is often the first person called when reporters need information on the Whalers, the Mayflower League or the celebrated coach Capizzo. Just last week, the Cape Cod Times called before Saturday's inter-island matchup. "He asked me if the game has lost some of its appeal," he said. "The Island Cup is icing on the cake now, it doesn't decide a championship anymore [because the two teams play in different divisions]. Sooner or later Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard will have similar records going into the game, but for 12 straight years the winner of the Nantucket-Vineyard game was playing to go to the Super Bowl, and that's all gone now." Herman can recite with ease different games the Whalers have been involved in, naming the players, the years and the places of pivotal matchups. With sheet after sheet of records and scores he has kept through the years, he is the Whalers historian and the last word on Nantucket sports. "I've liked sports my whole life," he says. "Growing up my favorite subject was math and I got that from reading the box scores. You look at sports, they're all numbers." Herman's love of sports led him to play football at Rindge Technical High School in Cambridge. After graduation he joined the workforce for three years and played semi-pro football for the South Boston Chippewas and Somerville Chiefs. He hadn't thought about college during high school because few people from his school or neighborhood went on to higher education in those days. "I realized when I was working as a shipper for a metal shop that after three years I had reached the maximum pay level," he recalled. He decided that college promised a better future. "I visited three college football coaches - at Harvard, Northeastern University and the last one I went to was Boston University. He asked me how long I'd been out of high school and I told him three years. He told me that MIT held high school refresher courses and that I should take the SATs. I did all right in math but was 20 points short on the verbal. He told me to take it again when it was offered in two weeks. I passed and the coach said, 'You're in and you're going to football camp in two weeks.' " He played on the defensive line for BU for two years and graduated as a business education major in 1966. That summer he was hired to teach middle school math on Nantucket. Although he didn't know it at the time, it was to be the beginning of a long-lasting relationship. " I thought I'd come down here, teach for two years and return to the mainland. I just fell in love with Nantucket." He taught for 35 years, and by the end was teaching the children of his former students. "If I'd stayed one more year I would have had a student say to me, 'You taught my grandmother!' I knew then it was time to retire." From the beginning, he volunteered to help out with the football team. His first year on Nantucket was also the year of the Whalers' first undefeated team under coach Capizzo. "The whole island was going football crazy," he recalled. "Vito heard I was going off-island one weekend. 'You're going off-island? Can you go see Our Lady of Newton? We're playing them.' " He officially became assistant coach in 1970, a position he held until 1985. During that time he helped guide Nantucket to its first Super Bowl win in 1980, and to subsequent Super Bowl appearances in '82 and '83. In 1986, figuring he'd take a year off to spend more time with his wife Maureen and their three children Laura, Peter and Rik, he received another phone call from Vito. Channel 3 announcers Nick Ferrantella and Steve Gallagher were stepping down. "He said, 'Why don't you do the TV?' " Before he knew it, Herman and former Whaler quarterback Chris Worth (who was managing The Hub at the time), were the new TV tandem. As with his other relationships, it's been long-lasting. He started out at Channel 3 and remained when the station switched over to Channel 17. This weekend's contest against the Vineyard marked his 22nd year broadcasting the game. As coach and broadcaster, he's been part of 38 Nantucket-Vineyard games. But as Herman quickly learned when he first got behind the microphone, broadcasting the games doesn't just mean talking about them - he had to become a salesman as well, rounding up sponsors to pay for airtime. At first, he and Worth divided up the sales responsibilities. As the teams increased from football to basketball to field hockey to swimming to softball and baseball and gymnastics, so did Herman's sales routes. "In 2004, we broadcast 89 events," Herman said. "I'd pick up about 75 sponsors in the course of a year." Like other successful salesmen, Herman had his own method for sealing the deal. "I always thought mid-August was a good time to see people, because I figured if there wasn't any money in the till in August there was never going to be any." He has cut down on the number of events he does these days - "I've got an agreement to do 30-to-50 games this year" - and no longer sells ads, but he's still the island voice of Whaler sports. He's seen both his sons play football on Nantucket and he and Maureen will visit their daughter this Thanksgiving. And come next month he'll be back behind the microphone, lending voice to the boys' and girls' basketball teams from high above courtside. I |
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