HUDSON – Hudson High School’s baseball field has a new name following a ceremony on Friday.
For the multiple generations of community members who knew him, the renaming is a fitting way to honor the late Hugo Guidotti Jr.
“The field was Hugo’s life,” Guidotti family matriarch Sally Guidotti said during the dedication ceremony. “…Thank you for this dedication to a man who loved Hudson, loved Hudson High sports and loved this field.”
‘The consummate Hawk’
Guidotti was a 1951 graduate of Hudson High School, where he excelled as a first baseman on the Hawks baseball team.
He later played baseball at Yale University, captaining the team at points during his time there.
Guidotti then went on to play minor league baseball in the Kansas City Athletics organization before coming back to Hudson and embarking on a 30-year career as a chemistry and physics teacher.
Guidotti was the Chair of the Science Department, the President of the Hudson Teachers Association as well as a basketball, football and baseball coach during his years.
He founded Hudson’s Summer Baseball Pony League and helped create the HHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
Guidotti was inducted into the Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame and gave back to his community through a number of efforts, including his role as a co-founder of the Hudson Food Pantry, as noted in a biography of his life shared on Friday.
“Mr. Guidotti was the consummate Hawk in every aspect of the word,” speaker Brian Bowen said during the ceremony, noting that long resume of contributions. “He understood the meaning of not only representing Hudson High School but the community and the town of Hudson as a whole.”
Hudson works to honor Guidotti
Sally Guidotti noted Hugo’s love for the HHS field, recalling his appreciation for its pristine condition across generations.
Efforts to put Hugo’s name on this field, in kind, date back to 2019, roughly two years after Hugo passed away in 2017.
That’s when Recreation Director Steven Santos said former Park Commissioner Jeff Wood first broached the topic.
Family members later approached the town about installing a memorial bench, eventually prompting town staff and Park Commission members to bring their ideas together.
The commission formally voted to rename the HHS baseball field as “Guidotti Field” in 2019. COVID-19 subsequently delayed a planned dedication in 2020, leading to this year’s event.
“Here we are, three years later, and it’s finally done,” Santos told the Community Advocate.
Guidotti joins other namesakes in HHS athletic campus
With Guidotti’s name now overlooking the ballfield, a historic emerald necklace of sorts has gained a new bead at Hudson High School.
Guidotti Field is flanked by Busch Field, named for Herb Busch. Edward Krysa’s name marks the HHS tennis courts, while the Morgan Bowl looms large in its position off Chapin Road.
That site draws its name from Ed Morgan, a former Hudson Department of Public Works director.
Victor Rimkus, meanwhile, is honored with his name on the HHS clubhouse, which is sandwiched between Guidotti Field and the Krysa Courts.
“They all worked together,” Santos said of Hudson’s sports icons, who indeed called each other colleagues as educators, coaches, and/or broader community figures.
“…There’s a history here,” Santos continued.
‘Humble as can be’
Guidotti is, indeed, part of Hudson’s history and identity, speakers noted this week.
As his name now marks the field he loved, though, the honor is as much about friendship, passion and the towering legacy of a man loved ones say kept working hard for his community across decades.
“I know he is looking down on us today, on his family, on this field, with a very big smile, humble as can be, now that he takes his rightful place next to the Rimkus clubhouse with his friend,” Bowen said.
“He was a very well-loved man,” Sally later added.
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