northeastern university sports Information 360 huntington ave. boston, ma 02115 NORT telephone: 611-437-2691

JACK GRINOLD

FOR RELEASE: Sunday, April 21, 1991

EASON OF BROCKTON, HAVERHILL ENTERS NU HALL

Don Eason, one of the great New England college of his era, remembers his high school football career at Haverhill High School. "We were so short," sighed Eason, "it was pathetic." Luckily, Eason and his twin brother Ron were dissuaded from wearing shoulder pads very early into their scholastic tryout days. They could get on with the task decreed upon them by Dad, the late Burt Eason: "Be the best baseball battery on the North Shore." The five-foot, seven-inch identical twins did just that; then they carried the title to college in the Big City. On Friday night, May 3rd, Don Eason, one-half hour Ron's junior, will be referred to as anything but short. That evening, in formal induction ceremonies at Matthews Arena, he enters the Northeastern University Hall of Fame. Everybody will be happy, including Eason. Afterall, he wasn't supposed to be around this long. At six months old, he ruptured his appendix and gave his family--father Burt, mother Mercedes, and older siblings Doris, Eleanor, Albert, Shirley, and Raymond--some sleepless nights. He came through, though, just as he always did on the mound for the legion team, and Haverhill High School, and the Huskies of legendary and athletic director Herb Gallagher. With Ron flashing the signals, Eason was 24-7 in four varsity seasons at Northeastern. Unhesitatingly, Gallagher called for the lefthander in starting, short, middle, and long relief roles. His radar control and sinking fastball were the respective scourges of the Greater Boston Intercollegiate (G.B.!.) League. "I had such good control that when it was off, he noticed," said Eason in reference to his catcher, hard-hitting twin brother Ron. "If the ball didn't come in where he wanted it, it came back pretty quickly." Eason had multiple out-pitches. He still holds the University's single-game record, 16, which he set in the final game of his junior season. Acclaimed as a starter, Eason was dynamite in relief. In a game against G.B.!. rival Harvard at the Stadium, he preserved a Husky lead in the bottom of the ninth inning by K'ing the side in nine pitches. "I think I threw nine fastballs," estimated Eason. "It was just one of those days when everything worked." "I could get cranked up in no time," recalled Eason, who in one stretch of firefighting rescued five games in seven days, allowing no earned runs in 8 2/3 innings with 14 . The battery of Eason and Eason had grown to legendary proportions at Northeastern and was nurtured at a very early age by Mr. Eason. "The moment he found out that I was left-handed and Ron was right­ handed--somewhere around the fourth or fifth grade--he was going to make a , catcher combination out of us." The strategy of a sports nut and father who wanted college scholarships for his sons paid off in spades. Haverhill High School Coach Felix Andress would miss his two college-bound athletes, though. Eason was 24 -6 and pitched HHS to several State Tourney appearances, with Ron behind the dish for most of them. There were masterful post-season performances as a senior, such as Don's three- victory against Natick at Fenway Park in the State quarterfinals. Scholarship overtures came from Holy Cross, and New Hampshire, but the twins ended up in Gallagher's Huntington Avenue office to talk red and black, as in the Northeastern colors. "Koko Kassabian (the late, great Northeastern Hall of Farner) was an Athletic Trainer on the North Shore at the time," said Eason. "He had strong ties to Northeastern and was very convincing. The next thing we knew, we were leaving Gallagher's office with the chance to play at Northeastern. That was enough for us." Eason would back up each and every press clipping. Gallagher used Eason as his number one starter and reliever from 1952 through 1955, and the Huskies responded with predominantly winning baseball. They were 13-5-1 in 1954, as Eason made his third of four straight appearances on the G.B.!. All Star squad. Bird-dogged since their formative years on the North Shore, the Easons were accruing substantial attention from scouts. Ron was line-drive hitting backstop with a fine arm, and his twin brother had the fastball to compliment a dazzling array of breaking stuff. His college E.R.A. was well under 2.50. The twins would be drafted twice, both times in tandem; the Milwaukee Braves signed Don and Ron to a major league contract following their senior season; the United States Army took them as a package, as well, two weeks before the end of their first season in the Braves system in Lawton, Oklahoma. On the professional hill, Don's sinking fastball was as allergic to lumber as it had been at Northeastern; he was 15-8 with the league's second lowest E.R.A. prior to Uncle Sam's arrival on the scene. Eason became a cause celibre in the Sixth Army's nine in California, where he played with and against major leaguers Wes Stock and Willie McCovey. In 1957, Eason won both ends of a double-header to get his team into the All Army Finals. Eventually, baseball had to defer to a family and a career, but it was a great vehicle; he met his wife, Mary, while on a 30-day leave ( 11 we had 29 dates ... ), and they would bring up Douglas, Bruce, and Michael in the Brockton area. Professionally, he would enter a long and prosperous union with the Raytheon Company,with whom he has been an executive for the past 33 years; along the way, he buttressed his Business Administration degree from Northeastern, with an M.B.A. degree in 1969. Life has been good to Don Eason, Northeastern Hall of Farner, and loyal twin; just ask him.

none things for sure, 11 he says . 11 1 have a great Guardian Angel. 11

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