He was affectionately referred to as “Bear.”
Pete McCarty, who died Sunday night after a long illness at the age of 70, was a 2009 inductee into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.
The former Bangor High School and University of Massachusetts football star, who went on to compile an impressive coaching resume, was a special person.
At Bangor High School, the fullback-defensive end won the Fitzpatrick Award that goes to the state’s best senior player. He was also a baseball and basketball player. He was an All-Yankee Conference linebacker and captain at UMass.
The muscular McCarty looked like a football player and, between the lines, he was an intense competitor who never took a play off. He was as tough as nails.
He brought that same passion and desire to win to the coaching profession.
But, off the field, he was a gentle giant with a great sense of humor who loved to laugh. He had a quick wit and was loyal to his friends. He could make you laugh with just a facial expression.
You considered yourself extremely fortunate to have him as a friend.
“He was the most kindhearted person I’ve ever known,” said Andy Soldati, one of his closest friends who spent a lot of time with McCarty over the past several years. “He really cared about people. He loved to talk to people, especially those involved in sports because he knew sports.”
“He had a great way about him,” said former Bangor High and Husson University of Bangor football head coach Gabby Price, one of McCarty’s lifelong friends. “I don’t know of anybody who didn’t like him.”
“People were attracted to him. He had so many friends from all walks of life,” added Price, who gave McCarty his coaching start on his staff at Bangor High after McCarty graduated from UMass.
Current Bangor High School Athletic Director Steve Vanidestine was on Price’s coaching staff with McCarty.
“He was a rare combination of an unbelievably talented athlete and a great team player whose kindness, sense of humor and energy were contagious,” Vanidestine said. “He was such a good person. He was humble. He would take care of even the lowest kids on the roster. He had that special quality.”
After Vanidestine became the athletic director at Bangor High and there was a head coaching vacancy for football, he wanted McCarty to take the job.
“He would have been a great hire. But he wanted to coach at the college level, so he pursued his dream,” Vanidestine said.
After coaching at Bangor, McCarty moved on to coach at Pittsfield’s Maine Central Institute before his former coach at UMass, Dick MacPherson, invited him to become a graduate assistant on his coaching staff at Syracuse University.
Soldati said former Old Town native MacPherson “helped him out a lot” by launching McCarty’s college coaching career.
McCarty has always been a defensive coach, primarily linemen and linebackers.
After leaving Syracuse, he was the defensive coordinator/inside linebackers coach at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts. He moved on to Holy Cross, Maryland, Illinois, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Central Florida, Western Michigan, Cornell, Fordham and New Hampshire.
He also spent one season as an intern with the National Football League’s New England Patriots.
In his six seasons at UNH, where he was the defensive line coach for five years and the defensive ends coach for his final year in 2019, his Wildcats averaged 32 ½ sacks per season.
The Wildcats led the Coastal Athletic Association in sacks in 2014, were second or tied for second three times, were third once and fourth once.
That didn’t surprise Soldati, who said McCarty’s work ethic was second to none.
“He would get his coffee and be in to work at 6 or 6:30 in the morning. He would watch film and things like that and then prepare for practice. After practice, he would get something to eat and then go back to his office. I might call him around 8 and he’d still be at the office. He wouldn’t leave until 11,” said Soldati, who also noted that McCarty was always studying trends and new coaching methods and innovations to stay up with the times and improve. “He put so much time into it. He was so dedicated. He always wanted to get better and be the best he could be.”
“He put his heart and soul into being a football coach,” said Price.
Soldati and Price added that McCarty cared about his players as individuals, not just football players, and wanted what was best for them after their careers were over.
McCarty was an exceptional football player whose blocking helped his younger brother, Paul, set the state record for points in a season with 152. They led the Rams to the 1973 state Class A title.
“Pete was the anchor [for the ’73 team]. He was one of those guys [the opponent] didn’t want to run many plays at,” said Vanidestine, who pointed out that Paul McCarty racked up his 152 points even though he rarely played the whole game because Bangor often had big leads in the second half and put in their reserves.
Soldati can attest to Pete McCarty’s prowess on the football field.
When he was playing for the University of Maine, Soldati had the responsibility of blocking McCarty when the Yankee Conference rivals would square off.
Soldati was an offensive tackle at UMaine and also saw some action on the defensive line.
“He was a tough kid and was tough to block. I’d hit him and he wouldn’t move,” said Soldati, who graduated from Bangor High before McCarty got there.
“He’d look at me and say ‘What are you doing? Are you trying to block me?” laughed Soldati.
The son of the late Walter and Laura McCarty took the UNH job so he could watch his sons, Cullen and Jackson, play football at York High School. They were living with his ex-wife.
He also followed their prep school careers, and when Cullen went on to play at Assumption College, Jackson continued his career at Merrimack College.
“He loved his sons. He was very proud of them,” said Soldati, who attended several of their games with their dad.
Cullen has followed in his father’s footsteps as a defensive tackles coach at Davidson College after spending two seasons as a graduate assistant coaching the offensive line at Old Dominion and a year as the defensive quality control coach at Fordham .
“[Pete] had a great life,” said Soldati. “He had a great family, great people around him who supported him and many, many great friends.”
“He was an excellent football player and an even better person,” Vanidestine said. “It’s very tough to lose someone like him.”