On the court, Ted Shiro was a fierce competitor. Short by basketball standards, he managed to set records and secure his status in the Maine Hall of Fame as a high school player. The same was true later as a retiree who played tennis for fun. He took every match seriously and usually won.
But off the court, the competitive edge softened, and Shiro was a smiling friend and a good sport.
“He was the epitome of a tremendous athlete,” said Sumner Lipman, a Naples resident and Shiro’s friend for 65 years. “He was a great sport, very competitive, but as soon as the match was over, it was over. That’s what people don’t understand about sports. You can compete but still be very good friends afterward.”
It was that spirit and his lauded sports history that earned him the most esteem among friends and family who remembered him after his death last month. Shiro, a Maine native, businessman and father, died of cancer. He was 87.
Shiro was a sports legend in Maine where he played basketball for Waterville High School. He later played for Colby College and eventually earned a spot in the Maine Hall of Fame and the New England Sports Hall of Fame.
Shiro belonged to seven sports halls of fame in total. In high school he helped his basketball team win 67 consecutive games along with two consecutive state championships in 1944 and 1945.
Shiro flirted with a pro career in the NBA, too. He played a number of exhibition games for the Boston Celtics before he was cut.
Lipman said he was listed in the program as being 6-feet, 1-inch tall when in reality he was just 5-9.
Shiro went on to marry his wife, Arden Shiro, and raise children and stepchildren.
His business career began with a restaurant in Maine called Howdy Burger, which is where he met Lipman. He later opened a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise. The same tenacity he showed in sports ended up carrying him in the business world as well.
“When he would take on a project, he would work so hard on it around the clock to make sure it was successful,” Lipman said.
Shiro’s grandsons, Josh Murray and Aaron Murray, seem to have gotten some of his athletic skills as well. Josh Murray played minor league baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers, and Aaron Murray is a quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Lipman and Shiro maintained a regular tennis regimen once they were in Naples together, playing against each other until Shiro’s health began to deteriorate.
“He said we needed to be on the same team from now on,” Lipman said. “So then he would show up with people and we would beat them together.”
A scholarship has been set up in his name at the Alfond Youth Center of Waterville.
“He was an absolutely great athlete and very good businessman,” Lipman said. “But his really great talent was that everyone loved Ted.”
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