Methuen's Bill James honored posthumously by state chapter of National Wrestling Hall of Fame

Boston Globe

07-04-2025

As early as 2020, the Mass. chapter started the process with James. But with the pandemic, and later his
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Don Bradley, Bill Corr, James, Michael McLarney, Jock Patterson, Aaron Polansky, and Torin Sweeney — as Polansky noted, the shortest class of inductees ever — all received Lifetime Service to Wrestling awards.
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Duxbury's Luke Hutton and Northfield Mt. Hermon's Elliott Humphries were Peckham Scholarship recipients.
Representing different eras of James's career, different stages of his more than 500 wins, John Sughrue introduced James and John Adams spoke in place of him.
Sughrue, a three-time All-State champion wrestler under James at Methuen, an assistant for him, and now the head coach, remarked that he once asked James about all his achievements and the longtime coach, also a cross-country coach, pulled out a two-and-a-half-page-long list.
'The greatest thing he left behind was that he helped hundreds, if not thousands of kids, especially in that high school age when you're really looking to find someone who's going to be a role model, who's going to be a mentor, who's going to show you the correct way to do things,' Sughrue said.
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'To show you that hard work really does pay off, to be dedicated to something. He was that guy for us. He was our leader. He was truly our role model.'
Earlier in James's career at Ipswich, Adams was among his mentees. The former King Philip, Hopkinton, and Norwood coach who racked up over 200 wins said James was his best friend, and that it was 'probably the single greatest honor of my life' to speak at his induction.
'He was an outstanding coach. He was also a truly great man. An inspiration and an actual hero of so many of us,' Adams said. 'In my opinion, he was the best in the business. His legacy will remain intact. His presence is still felt. This community is less without him.'
Though the Peckham scholars did not give speeches, they received their awards for embodying Jim Peckham's philosophy of 'earning the right to win.'
Hutton has wrestled for six years, earning captainship for two, winning a sectional title at 175 pounds this year, and placing at states multiple times.
'It's shaped me as a person through my personality,' Hutton said of wrestling. 'The sport is just so hard and it is such a mental battle of physical battle that it's just, it's so individual, yet it's so team oriented as well that it's taught me so much how to work and persevere throughout my life.
'Whether it was in school, sports, or just figuring out a problem by myself, it's completely changed who I am today.'
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Along with a 3.76 GPA at Duxbury, the future Trinity College wrestler is a member of the National and Chinese National Honor Societies, and founded the Asian Diversity Club.
He brought his friends into the club and grew it to almost 100 people.
'I think it really helped a lot in the school because a lot of people, there's a lot of people [who], they like learning about it. I thought it was really awesome that I got to spread and give out new perspectives in the world about Asia.'
Humphries had a standout senior season that started with second place at Fargo nationals and ended with
He will wrestle at the University of Pennsylvania.
'Looking forward now into college, I have a lot bigger goals,' Humphries said. 'But with some of the stuff that I checked off my senior year, I don't think anything's impossible.'
The run to the Fargo finals was a breakout performance, not just delivering the first boys' finalist from Massachusetts in a decade, but also doing it from a tough seed after gritting out his first decision, 20-19 over New Jersey's Jordan Chapman.
He remembers saying he didn't care about his seed, but then finding out his first matchup. It fired him up.
'The first thing I did was call my dad and I was like, 'We're riding the seed to the finals,' ' He said. 'And I told him that this is the place I want to be in. I want to take someone out by surprise. I know I'm going to be ready. And if he's not, it's going to be a problem.'
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AJ Traub can be reached at