Henry M. "Hammering Hank" Toczylowski (February 2, 1919 – October 10, 1982) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and coach. A graduate of

Lynn Classical High School Lynn Classical High School is a high school in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of Lynn Public Schools. The school was once located off of the Lynn Commons, in a building which is now the Fecteau-Leary school. The hig ...

and St. John's Preparatory School he played college football at the

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

position for the Boston College Eagles football team and was selected as a first-team player on the

1940 College Football All-America Team The 1940 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1940. The nine selectors recognized by the ...

. He played on the B.C. team that defeated

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

19–14 in the

1941 Sugar Bowl The 1941 Sugar Bowl featured the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers and the fifth-ranked Boston College Eagles, both with records of 10–0 and high-scoring It was played on Wednesday, January 1, 1941, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, In the ...

. During the game, Toczylowski threw a crucial block that allowed Mickey Connolly to score a game-tying touchdown. Toczylowski was selected by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the

1941 NFL Draft The 1941 National Football League Draft was held on December 10, 1940, at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Chicago Bears selected halfback Tom Harmon. Player selections Round 1 Round 2 R ...

and offered a $75 a game contract. He instead accepted a $2,200 a year job as a teacher and head football coach at Saugus High School. After the Dodgers had lost a number of players to military service he was offered a $6,200 contract by the Dodgers, but chose to fulfill his contract and remain at Saugus High until he was called into active service with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in May 1942. Toczylowski was released from military service in 1943 and was offered contracts by the Dodgers and the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

, but instead chose to become a geometry teacher and head football coach at

Beverly High School Beverly High School is one of two four-year public high schools in Beverly, Massachusetts, United States, the other being the smaller Northshore Academy. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,300 students and is accredited by the Massachuset ...

. In 1944 he moved on to Arlington High School, where he was head football and basketball coach. Toczylowski's 1949 team won the Class A championship and received an invitation to the Sugar Bowl schoolboy classic. He was succeeded as head football coach by Eddie Burns in 1955 but remained at AHS as a house dean and business teacher. Toczylowski was inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame in 1974. He was also inducted into the High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame. He died on October 10, 1982 at

St. Elizabeth's Hospital St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Southeast, Washington, D.C. operated by the District of Columbia Department of Behavioral Health. It opened in 1855 under the name Government Hospital for the Insane, the first federally oper ...

following a stroke.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toczylowski, Henry 1919 births 1982 deaths American football quarterbacks Boston College Eagles football players High school football coaches in Massachusetts Sportspeople from Lynn, Massachusetts Players of American football from Essex County, Massachusetts United States Navy personnel of World War II