Lewis “Lew” Perkins, one of the greatest basketball players in Chelsea High School history who went on to become a major college athletics administrator, died on Tuesday, July 18. He was 78.
The son of the late Abraham and Sarah Perkins, Lew grew up on Shurtleff Street and attended Shurtleff School and Chelsea High School. At Shurtleff, Lew developed his basketball talents under the guidance of Arnold Goodman, who was one of his teachers and coaches.
“Arnold started working with Lew when he was in the fifth grade and taught him how to rebound and play the center position,” recalled Stevie Karll, Lew’s high school teammate and lifelong friend. “Arnold gave him all the exercises to make him a center.” By the time Lew Perkins entered Chelsea High School for his sophomore year, he had grown to be 6 feet, 5 inches, and he used his size and skills to become a dominant center for the Red Devils.
At Chelsea High, Mr. Perkins reunited with his Shurtleff School coaches Freddy Garabedian, who became the head basketball coach, and Arnold Goodman, who was the assistant coach.
Perkins averaged more than 20 points per game and scored more than 1,000 points during his outstanding three-year career for the Red Devils. He set a single-game scoring record of 59 points [versus Somerville High], a record that still stands today. Interestingly, Chelsea lost the game despite Perkins’ record-setting performance and 22 points from Stevie Karll.
The 1962-63 CHS team, led by Perkins and Karll, a terrific long-range shooter and passer, and others including Marty Dorfman and Mickey O’Donnell, qualified for the Tech Tournament. Fans would pack the old CHS gym to watch the Red Devils play their home games.
Coach Goodman later nicknamed the dynamic duo of the 6-foot-5 Lew Perkins and the 5-foot-7 Stevie Karll, “Mighty Moose and Mighty Mouse.”
“Lew dominated the game when he played for Chelsea High,” recalled Karll, who later played basketball at Boston State College. “Once he had the ball in the paint, he was unstoppable. He dominated the whole Greater Boston League.”
Karll said he and Perkins began their friendship in elementary school. “Lew lived on Shurtleff, and I lived on Belllingham,” said Karll. “We played in Arnold Goodman’s intramural basketball league and for the Shurtleff Junior High teams that played against Willliams and Carter [Junior High].”
Reecruited by many college, Lew Perkins went on to play college basketball at the University of Iowa. He entered the field of sports administration and enjoyed a successful 40-year career in college athletics, serving as the athletic director at Division 1 programs such as Wichita State, Maryland, UConn, and Kansas. Perkins is credited with helping the UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams become national powerhouses. Following his career in college athletics, he served on the USA Boxing board of directors.
Perkins, who also threw the javelin for the the track team, was inducted into the first class of the Chelsea High School Athletics Hall of Fame.
“Lew was basically unstoppable as a high school player,” said former CHS athletic director Frank DePatto. “I put him at the top of the list of Chelsea’s all-time greats, alongside Solly Nechtem and Craig Walker.”
Karll said he and Perkins kept in touch often through the years. Perkins traveled to Boston to attend Karll’s 70th birthday party. Another close friend was Jimmy Barbati, Lew’s high school classmate. “The three of us would triple date in high school,” said Karll.
Though he didn’t return often to Chelsea, Lew Perkins still held the city warmly in his heart.
“Lew never forgot where he was from,” said Karll. “He never forgot he was from Chelsea.”