(1926-2018)
Inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, 1986
A Hartford native, Leo Pinsky lettered in football, basketball and baseball at Hartford High School, graduating in 1944.
In his first game as a freshman at UCONN, he kicked two punts over 75 yards from the scrimmage line, an achievement which was noted in the New York Times report of the game. He enlisted in the Marines while a freshman, and was stationed on Guam, where he guarded POWs and played second base on the Marines baseball team that beat the Navy team in the Guam Island Championship. He returned to the University of Connecticut after two years and was permitted to play football four more years under a wartime dispensation, gaining five letters in football. (He and his three brothers accumulated more college football letters than any other family in the country.) In 1946 he was reported to be a leading US college football punter. He also starred on the baseball team for four years.
Pinsky continued his education at Springfield College. In 1954, he returned to the area and started teaching in the Farmington school system, where he coached baseball at Farmington High School until 1984. During his tenure his team won numerous state and conference championships. Pinsky was the first Connecticut coach to win three state baseball championships: 1957, 1965, 1978. He also coached football and basketball teams at Farmington High School. He won 411 games and 12 league titles in 31 seasons coaching the Farmington Indians, holding a losing record only once.
He was named Connecticut high school baseball coach of the year in 1965 by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. In 1988 he received the Baseball Coach Gold Award from Scholastic Coach Magazine, and in 1989 he was inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame. In 2003 he was unanimously voted to receive the Red O’Neill Award from the University of Connecticut, citing his character, leadership, athletic ability, and successful career. That same year, he was inducted into the Hartford Public High School Sports Hall of Fame. Leo worked in the Farmington school system for 32 years, primarily as a high school social studies teacher and baseball coach.
Photo Courtesy of Galya Greenberg