Francis Tate, Former Coach and Vaulter Passes Away

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Longtime Nashua coach Francis Tate dies at 94


By DEAN SHALHOUP, Telegraph Staff
shalhoupd@telegraph-nh.com
Published: Thursday, Jun. 9, 2005
ENLARGE PHOTO
Staff file photo by Bob Hammerstrom
Nashua and Bishop Guertin tracksters look on as former Nashua High track coach Francis Tate, left, is greeted by Charlie Newman of Nashua during a brief ceremony rededicating the Nashua High School South track to Tate. Tate, 94, died Wednesday. Order this photo
He was the last remaining link to Nashua’s Golden Age of schoolboy athletics, one-third of a veritable holy trinity of leadership that put countless Nashua High School teams and athletes on the national map in the 1950s and 60s.

Today, several generations of sports-connected folks well beyond Nashua are mourning the passing of retired Nashua High track and field coach Francis Tate, the quiet, laid-back component of the legendary Harvey-Marandos-Tate coaching team that for decades earned city athletics an unwavering, widespread respect.

Tate, until just three months ago an active, vital man with an uncanny ability to remember details about his former athletes and long-ago track meets, died early Wednesday at the Courville at Manchester. He was 94.

“What a wonderful guy, just wonderful,â€Â