Friends and family remember LHS baseball standout Sonny Nictakis 15 years after his death.
On Aug. 6, 2000, the world lost Peter “Sonny” Nictakis to Hodgkin’s disease.
Nictakis was not just a standout athlete at Lawrence High School—he was a standout person, as well. He went on to play baseball at Boston College and was working for the Boston Red Sox when he died.
As we look back on the 15th anniversary of Nictakis’ passing, it’s safe to say the legacy he left behind is as powerful as the impact he made while still here.
“I would think so,” said former Cardinal baseball coach Larry Nickol, who also taught Nictakis. “His friends have stayed true to him after all this time.”
One of those friends is Rachel Lavery-Scaturo, who graduated with Nictakis and knew him since the sixth grade in Lawrence Elementary School.
“I’ll see people I haven’t seen in years and they’ll talk about Sonny like it was yesterday,” Lavery said. “They all will say how much he meant to them and how they still think about him all the time.”
None of this should be surprising to anyone who even remotely knew Nictakis. Take a guy like Tom Carr, who caught for McCorristin (now Trenton Catholic) when Nictakis caught for Lawrence.
“I didn’t really know him that well, but we would talk about catching and stuff when we played each other,” Carr said. “He seemed like a great guy. I’ve never heard a bad word said about him.”
It would indeed be tough to find any Sonny naysayers out there. The old saying ‘only the good die young’ certainly held true when Nictakis passed at age 25. As time has passed, though, his memory has not faded. In fact, people still want to be a part of the Sonny experience.
“It is just amazing,” said his mom, Jean Nictakis. “His friends stay in touch with me, his girlfriend, his roommate. They’re all still part of our lives. It’s just incredible.”
Nictakis meant so much to so many during his time at Lawrence High and Boston College that a number honors continue to keep his name alive. The Friends of Sonny Scholarship Award is given to the Lawrence High student who best embodies Nictakis’ qualities. The money is generated by his friends and the award is presented by Lavery, who is a big part of the committee along with fellow graduate Courtney Colavita.
“It’s very important to keep his legacy alive, and obviously I’m not the only one who feels that way,” said Lavery, who has also established a Friends of Sonny Facebook page with Colavita.
The Cardinals’ baseball field is named after Nictakis, with a plaque embedded in stone behind home plate detailing Sonny’s qualities and accomplishments, while the Boston Red Sox fund a scholarship award that is presented by Lavery to an LHS student-athlete.
Boston College awards a scholarship to an Eagles underclassmen who best represents Nictakis’ qualities, and the school completes its fall practice with its Annual Three-Game Sonny Nictakis World Series, an intrasquad battle at the end of October.
Nictakis’ number at Boston College was originally retired, but when Mike Gambino, a former BC teammate and close friend of Nictakis, took over, he brought the number back. Each year Gambino awards a current player who has battled adversity and represents the best qualities of BC baseball Nictakis’ No. 8 to wear for the season. It is presented at Baseball Night in January at Fenway Park.
If those honors don’t reveal enough about Nictakis’ characters, just listen to those who knew him best.
“He was an incredibly loyal friend, and his friends are fiercely loyal in return,” Lavery said. “Friends from elementary school through college and beyond keep Sonny’s memory alive every day. Through the years when I see people who knew Sonny, they always talk about him, ask about his mom, and remark how much he touched their lives.”
And while Nictakis was all business in the classroom and on the field, he definitely had a lighter side.
“Sonny was also just a fun guy to be around,” Lavery said. “He had a great laugh, he was smart and witty. He was always there for his friends when they needed him.”
Those friends could include teammates or just someone in the same class who Nictakis didn’t know all that well, but didn’t mind helping.
“He was a great kid in class,” said Nickol, who taught Nictakis in Advanced Placement English. “If a kid was having trouble with something, he’d go right over and help him. He was also the best catcher I ever had in 20 years of coaching. He was just a quality kid. He was in the chorus , on student council. He’s probably one of the most amazing kids I’ve ever known in the 39 years I taught.”
Jean Nictakis tells a story that reflects Nickol’s words. It had to do with a young man named Freddy—the last name escapes her—who worked with Nictakis for the Red Sox. He would frequently visit Sonny in the hospital when his health took a bad turn.
“Freddy was a delight,” Jean said. “He was adamant that Lawrence High School have a monument to honor Sonny. He’s the one who got things started for that. And he felt there should be a scholarship for his memory and he was the one who approached the Red Sox about donating the scholarship. Rachel said she remembers seeing him at the funeral.”
Nictakis’ cancer first appeared during his senior year at Lawrence, but he did not let that stop him as he earned All-County honors, played at the Lawrenceville School as a post-graduate for a year and got a scholarship to BC, where he served as team captain in 1998 and 99.
“He was sick for a long time,” Lavery said. “It was on and off from the time we were seniors in high school. But he kept going, he lived his life. His battle with cancer lasted for seven and a half years. During that time, he accomplished more than many people achieve in a lifetime. He lived his life with joy and I imagine many people were not aware of how hard this battle was because of his positive attitude and strength.”
Upon Nictakis’ passing, Jean ordered flowers for the funeral. When she arrived, she was shocked to see 130 sunflowers in the front of the church, that she had not ordered. It turns out the priest provided the flowers, telling Jean “with all the things I heard about Sonny, the most appropriate flower for Sonny is sunflower.”
Jean decided at that moment to keep the tradition alive. Each year on Apr. 24—Nictakis’ birthday—she plants sunflowers in Beach Haven Garden on Long Beach Island, a favorite Nictakis hangout.
“It’s a way we can keep his memory alive,” she said.
Sadly, when Nictakis’ life ended, there are those who felt his dad’s life ended the same day. Pete Nictakis was a popular dentist in Lawrence who helped coach the Lawrence American Legion team when Sonny played. The two were best friends and Sonny’s passing hit Pete extremely hard.
Sixteen months later, on a late December evening in 2001, Jean Nictakis was meeting with Lavery and Colavita to go over the details for the field dedication the following day. That’s when tragic irony reared it’s ugly head.
“My husband came up from lifting weights,” Jean said. “He was having trouble getting a deep breath. I said ‘It’s probably your heart,’ and he said ‘I’m sure it is.’ He wanted to die, because Sonny had died. He walked the dog and didn’t come back. He was so upset they had to name a baseball field after his son who had died.”
Jean began to worry when Pete was a little late, and got more concerned when the dog showed up alone. She had the horrible chore of going out to find her husband’s body on the sidewalk, dead of a heart attack.
“His dad was in great shape, he jogged all the time, he worked for the Thunder on the grounds crew,” Nickol said. “It was a shock. It was an emotional thing. He kind of died of a broken heart.”
It was the kind of grief no one deserves, but Jean and her two surviving sons have persevered thanks to the incredible support system of Nictakis’ friends.
Asked what Pete would have thought of all the honors his son has received posthumously, Jean said, “My husband was so angry at the whole thing that he was losing this wonderful child, that I don’t know what he would have said. He would have said he certainly deserved it, but would have prefaced it by saying ‘Son of a b****!’ I think he’d be pleased, but…’”
But, honors only go so far and can never replace the actual person. Jean said that while she is touched by all the scholarships and dedications, it can never take away the loss.
She does know one thing, however. Her son would have enjoyed it.
“He always appreciated being recognized,” Jean said. “I would like think he would like these things. I remember when he was selected as captain for BC a second time and I said in true mother fashion, ‘Maybe you should give someone else a chance.’ And he said ‘No mother, they want me to be the captain and I’m going to be the captain.’”
Sonny Nictakis was a great captain, but he was more than that. He was as large as life itself, and 15 years after Lawrence lost him, his friends are making sure he remains that way.
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