'Tall Paul' Joins County Hall

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – All of Saturday’s inductees in the Berkshire County Girls Basketball Hall of Fame made their share of headlines for their high school girls teams “back in the day.”

 

All, that is, except one.

 

Paul Crennan joined a group of eight former student-athletes in the Hall’s Class of 2022 as a contributor to the game, a category that has appeared in nearly every Hall class since it was founded in 2013.

 

The list includes officials like Wray Gunn and Mike Kinne, youth league organizers like North Adams’ Margaret and Myles Whitney and, now, the unsung hero of Pittsfield girls basketball who most know as “Taul Paul.”

 

Crennan holds the distinction of being the only of this year’s inductees currently involved with a Berkshire County high school basketball program. He is a long-time assistant coach for 2016 inductee Joe Racicot at Pittsfield High.

 

Racicot describes Crennan as a hard worker and an integral part of the Generals’ program.

 

Dane Wested learned about Crennan’s work ethic long ago

 

“It began at Berkshire Community College,” Wested said in presenting Crennan at Saturday’s ceremony at Proprietor’s Lodge. “I was working, and I was asked to check in on a new employee and see if he was working.

 

“I found him, finally, and everybody else was at lunch, but not Paul. He is in a room cleaning the desktops in a classroom.”

 

Crennan was an assistant coach in women’s soccer and cross country at BCC from the early ‘80s through 2010, Wested said.

 

“Anything I needed, it was there,” he said. “If I reached for the med kit, it was already there. Somebody breaks their shoelaces, they’re there. This is the type of guy this is.”

 

Playing off Crennan’s nickname, Wested continued.

 

“The ‘T’ in ‘TP’ doesn’t just stand for ‘Tall,’ “ he said. “It stands for ‘Team.’ This guy right here is the personification of team. He’s there for everyone. It’s fabulous.”

 

Racicot agreed.

 

“We kid Paul a lot, but it’s tough to find somebody as loyal and as honest and as friendly as Tall Paul,” Racicot said.

 

“Whenever we’re at a game and I see a game putting in a lineup or hustling here and going to get this or that and making sure everything is lined up … Tall Paul does all that, so we can spend more time coaching the kids. I say to everybody, ‘You’ve got to get yourself one of them.’ “