SPORTS HALL of FAME ATHLETE
Claude Shaw '65

In a Sports Hall of Fame known for plenty of "firsts", we now have the VERY first New York State individual sport champion at Sidney! Of course there was much more in the career of Claude Shaw to earn his HOF status. But that honor of being first can never be taken away.

Like many of his male schoolmates, Claude was encouraged to play sports in all three seasons. Overall, he racked up 10 letters including 3 each in football and spring track and 4 more in wrestling. Those three years of football were among the best ever as the Warriors won 18 of 22 games,highlighted by the unbeaten league title of 1964 (they later lost a grueling 6-0 game to Chenango Valley). Claude was voted team MVP as a linebacker and running back in both his junior and senior seasons.

Spring track and field in the early 1960s took place on the new cinder oval on the hill. Claude's specialty was the pole vault. He cleared 11 feet 6 inches to win the 1963 Susquenango League title as a sophomore. Now remember two things: this was with a metal pole in the days before the much more flexible fiberglass version; and not only was the vaulter working to clear the bar, he had to figure out how to land into sawdust! No module pads back then. Impressive! As a junior, Claude was also on a championship half-mile relay team.

The 1964-65 NYS Wrestling Tournament is well known as Sidney's finest overall performance. And Claude Shaw's 6-3 victory in the 154 lb. Championship bout over Deer Park's Joe Goonan forever put this Warrior into the record books as mentioned above. The year prior, Claude made his first state tournament at 245 pounds. There, he lost 6-1 in the semis before garnering 3rd place by virtue of a 13-4 domination in the consolation match. And with Sidney sending 5 wrestlers to the semifinals in 1965, no semi match was as nail-biting as Claude's overtime 2-1 win over a favored Long Island wrestler Mike Nardotti.

Claude attended SUNY-Cortland upon graduation and briefly played some football and wrestled. But by 1967, he was drafted. So instead, he enlisted into the U.S. Army in order to enter the Security Agency as a Morse Code Interceptor. His days in the field were spent in Thailand and Ethiopia through 1971, earning Claude a number of prestigious service medals. We thank him for his service to our country.

Since then, he got a BS in Applied Mathematics from Florida IT and worked at St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse for 34 years. He continues "post retirement" as a monitor tech at the nearby VA Hospital. A team player for sure, our first individual NYS champion now gets his honor as a member of the 2016 Class of the Sidney Alumni Sports Hall of Fame.