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John Carman
July 29, 2009
John Carman, longtime equipment manager for the Randolph Oilers has passed away.
It's with a heavy heart that the Oilers say goodbye to a great friend and family member. Officially Johnny was our equipment manager, but to most guys he meant much more. He painted all the helmets for the team up until this season when he became too ill to do it. He was not only loved by the team, but by the entire EFL. Coach Carmen bled blue and gold and his life centered around the Oilers.
His spirit will forever be with us on the sidelines, and we know he'll be looking down on us as we make our run for the championship. Surely his final thoughts were about the Oilers. John Carmen was 61, may you keep him in your thoughts and may he rest in peace.
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Background:
John had a varied and interesting career working in many different fields including traveling across the country with different bands, and being part of an auto racing team for many years. He then got involved in the auto parts industry, management of commercial properties and several construction fields. He enjoyed amateur athletics playing goalie in both soccer and hockey at Albany Academy, and later as a goalie at RPI. He also played amateir softball on the south shore as a catcher.
For many years John enjoyed his summers at the family home in Orleans fishing and riding a motorcycle. Through the years John became a great fan of Harvard football and the annual Harvard-Yale game was one of the yearly highlights for John.
For the last several years John lived in Ran dolph where he was an active member of the community volunteering at the Randolph VFW and Amvets Post. He volunteered with the Randolph Rotary Club and was one of the original member's of the community's Emergency Medical Response Team formed after the 9/11 tragedy.
John was very active on and off the field with the Randolph Oilers football team in the Eastern Football League, helping to organize the team serving as the team's equipment manager. John was a perfectionist and he made sure taht no team looked better going onto the field with their helmets perfectly painted and marked, which was no easy task! He will be sorely missed by the coaches, team, and management of teh Oilers due to his personality, unique voice, and the numerous jobs he performed that go into putting a team on the field. John performed many of th thing that most people take for granted during the normal course of a game, including setting up the field, press box, refreshment stand, sidelines, and on the sidelines repairing buckles and clips on shoulder pads, putig new cleats into player's shoes, helping to tape players ankles and wrists, securing ice packs for minor injuries, and occasionally directing traffic so that an injured player could be taken off the field. 'Where's Johnny??" was a regular cry fromn the bench.
Off the field John could always be counted on to help with the team and league functions- cooking, setting up tables, breaking down the hall and cleaning up, the first and last person on the scene.
John was a good man and he will be missed.
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John was a fun loving guy, which was on clearly display in 2007 when he volunatrily decided to get up and sing at the team's annual Rookie Idol contest. While on stage he had a good-natured back and forth with the comedian who MC'ed the event. Be sure to click on the "Spirit" video in which the MC did a good job of expressing why we all loved and appreciated John.
Please click HERE to see videos of John's performance.
Articles:
Please see below (after the Photos section) for an article on John from the Randolph Herald.
Awards:
* John was the 2001 recipient of the "James O'Kane, Sr. Memorial Award" given in recognition of John's many contributions to teh Randolph Oilers.
Photos:
Articles:
Heart of blue and gold
By Claire Arnstein
Posted Jul 28, 2009 @ 02:09 PM
Wicked Local Staff Photo by Jacob Belcher
A photo of Oilers equipment manager John Carman, who passed away last week, stands on the ticket counter as Eddie Nye waits for spectators at Sundays game against Brockton Brockton
It was a rare sight to see John Carman without his Oilers “gear.”
He constantly wore his Oilers hat and jacket. Carman would even talk about the colors – blue and gold -- when there wasn’t a game.
Doing so even helped out the team. One night, Carman walked into a Chinese restaurant sporting his blue and gold. He struck up a conversation with Kevin Boyle, who had never heard of the Oilers and hadn’t played football in 31 years.
Undeterred, Carman gave Boyle head coach Ed Penn’s phone number.
“Well, what are the odds?” Boyle asked him.
“Slim to none, but give him a call,” Carman answered.
Unfortunately, Carman never had the opportunity to see Boyle play.
He died July 21. He was 63.
The offensive lineman visited Carman at the VA Medical Center in
He wore his game uniform from head to toe so Carman could see it.
Boyle looked at Carman and said, “I made it this far John and I haven’t got in a game yet.”
“Sooner or later,” Carman replied. It was the only clear thing he said all day.
Raised in
Although he never played football, Carman immediately latched onto
He showed up as a stranger to his first Oilers game and immediately became a family member. With his outgoing and helpful personality, Carman asked the coaching staff if he could contribute in any way that very first game and for the next twenty years created a great relationship.
John painted all the helmets, set up the refreshment stand, assigned people to handle the game clock, helped the trainer with taping ankles and wrists, and was the first one on the scene and the last one off the scene. He was extremely dependable.
“You didn’t realize how much of the little things he did until now,” Oilers General Manager Peter O’Kane said. “He was wonderful with the equipment and did a lot that we took for granted John was a guy that made the team a family. He truly bled Blue and Gold.”
John Carman was a huge part of the Eastern Football League Organization. Bob Kalinyak, the President of the EFL, said he attended every single meeting and was, “(a) heck of a guy.”
He was one-of-a-kind with his raspy voice and facial hair, Oilers Head Coach Ed Penn said.
“(He even thought) he was the head coach at times, telling me to run plays they ran in 1928,” Penn said.
“He was his own person. He was John. We are gonna win it for him.”
The Oilers dedicated their second game of the season, a home field matchup against the Brockton Buccaneers on Sunday to Carman’s memory.
They won 24-6.
The team plans to create an award in memory of Carman’s dedication, hard work and loyalty throughout the years.
“Everyone knew John in the whole league…at least when they played
