That’s what Bates College Director of Athletics Kevin McHugh had to say about William “Chick” Leahey, the longtime Bates baseball coach who died on Saturday at the age of 90.

Leahey was at the helm of the baseball team for 36 seasons, from 1955-90, but he was still apart of the program after that, and even after his passing that will continue.

Leahey’s name adorns the very field that his teams once played on. The Bates diamond was renamed Leahey Field in Chick’s final season.

“It’s great that we’ve always got that piece of him that’s going to be a part of baseball, a part of Bates forever basically,” McHugh said of the Leahey Field.

McHugh noted that often times when an athletic facility bears someone’s name, it comes after a financial donation.

Leahey donated something else to Bates — his time and energy.

Current Bates baseball coach Mike Leonard said playing at the field that bears Leahey’s name is a constant reminder to his players of the dedication that Chick put into the program.

It’s no surprise that Leahey’s uniform number is the only one retired by the baseball team. Chick never got to play for Bates wearing that number (he played in the New York Yankees organization for two years before enrolling at Bates in 1948), but his value to the program — 300 wins, multiple conference championships and countless boys turned into men — goes beyond any statistic you’ll find in a baseball scorebook.

“Bates College as a whole has benefitted greatly from Coach Leahey’s time at Bates,” Leonard said. “I think the standard of excellence comes from the alums that have gone through and became better men, and better baseball players and better students because of playing for Coach Leahey.”

Leonard said Leahey was revered by his former players, many of whom he’s met during his six seasons as head coach. Those former players “come back in droves” because of Leahey, according to Leonard. They came back when he was inducted into Bates’ Scholar-Athlete Society in 2011, and again when his number was retired in 2014.

They’ll stop in for a game when a vacation or work brings them to Maine or New England, and sometimes even return just because.

“His accomplishments, but also his effect on so many of the athletes that played for him, I think that’s the thing that makes him the iconic person, that you can go to generations of athletes who say how influenced they were by him, and what by what he taught, and how he helped shape them to be the person they are now,” McHugh said. “Things that sort of sound kind of cliche, but they’re all appropriate to him.”

McHugh said that one sign of the arrival of spring is when he checks in on a baseball game and sees Chick and his wife Ruth there. He called the couple “pretty much inseparable,” and they attended many football and baseball games up until last year.

Leonard was lucky enough to split the couple apart, if only for a brief moment. Both Chick and Ruth were visiting Leonard in his office early in his tenure when Chick asked Ruth to step out so the two men could talk about baseball. Leonard said Chick immediately grabbed a baseball bat and started talking hitting with him.

“You could just see the coach in him, the fire, the want to get right there and compete still with him even though he was in his late 80s,” Leonard said.

The Leaheys became close with Leonard and his young family, helping them get to know the Bates community. Ruth even talked with Leonard’s wife about coping with being the wife of a college baseball coach.

“Everybody has this affection and affinity for the Leaheys, and the players that played for Coach just absolutely admire him to no end,” Leonard said.

Leonard said he isn’t sure how the baseball team will honor Chick this season, but he wants to do it the right way. The team will be present at Leahey’s wake on Friday, but a doubleheader on Saturday will prevent them from being at his funeral.

The team will be there in spirit, however, just as Chick will be at Leahey Field in spirit for the Bobcats.

“I think it will certainly be a season where our guys know that he’s right there watching over them the way that he has for the last 50-plus years,” Leonard said.

Leahey called Lewiston home for nearly his entire life. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1943, having played on championship football and baseball teams. He spent the next half-decade as both a marine fighting in World War II, then as a Yankees farmhand.

Then he returned to his native city and never fully left it, or Bates.

McHugh said he thinks Chick’s passing will bring a pilgrimage of former players, and anyone else whose life was touched by Leahey, back to campus.

“Like a lot of times happens when someone like this passes, it does bring the community back together in sort of an odd kind of way,” McHugh said.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com