Class of 2024

NICK TANCREDI

There was a time in Mechanicville when everyone knew the Tancredi name. Now the only vestige of that name is hard to see on a building on Depot Square. Therein lies a tale. Back in the early days of the 20th century, there was a flow of immigrants arriving in America. These immigrants left their home countries in search of a better life. Antonio Tancredi was one of those. To come to America, Antonio left his parents and 13 siblings, then living in a small village in the Benevto Province of Italy. Antonio arrived in Mechanicville where others from his village had already started their close-knit Italian community. He found employment in the DeLucia family’s mom and pop grocery store. In a few years Antonio was able to bring Stella, a young lady from his home village, to join him in Mechanicville. Antonio and Stella began their family with Nick being their oldest child. Quickly, sisters Daisy and Arg were born. Then followed brother Alfred who, sadly, would succumb to the Spanish Flu. Soon baby sister Helen completed the family. In the meantime, with the Mechanicville economy booming, Antonio made plans to build a two-story building on Depot Square on the fast-growing “West Side” of Mechanicville. His family lived upstairs while his mom-and-pop grocery store, featuring “choice meats” would fill the ground floor. Fortunately, the building was completed before the Great Depression began in October of 1929. With Tancredi’s Store right across the street from the passenger train depot, it was perfectly located to serve the many commuters who used the many daily trains to and from Albany. By this time, Nick was attending Mechanicville High School, playing sports while also helping out in the store and learning the meat butchering trade from his father. Nick was a three-sport athlete, on the track team, the basketball team and, in his senior year, becoming the captain of the football team. The term “Red Raiders” was decades in the future, with the basketball team then nicknamed The Weiglemen,” in reference to their young coach, Ted Weigle. In the fall of 1931, Nick and fellow MHS graduate, Ed Sullivan, packed their bags and became students at the University of Notre Dame. Nick likely hoped to play on Notre Dame’s nationally-known football team. The team was no longer coached by the legendary Knute Rockne, but was coached by Elmer Layden, one of the storied Four Horsemen of the mid-1920’s National Champions. Nick served in his role as a member of the football practice squad. In a class of just over 400 men, Nick and Ed graduated in 1936, proud holders of their University of Notre Dame diplomas. Nick began his career as a basketball coach by becoming the assistant coach to Dan Cuhna, the head coach of boys’ basketball at Vincentian Institute in Albany, NY. At that time, Vincentian was one of the highest rated Catholic high schools in the region. That gig ended when in 1941 Coach Cuhna took over the basketball coaching job at Siena College. Nick had also become a newly-wed, marrying Mildred Ballard from Cohoes, the couple taking up residence on Fourth Street in Mechanicville. While Nick spent more time helping run Tancredi’s Store, he quickly found an outlet for his basketball coaching ability. Enter Rev. Ernest Autch, OSA, the new associate pastor at St. Paul’s Church. Father Autch began many youth programs, one of which was the CYO, Catholic Youth Organization, basketball program. With Nick as their coach, this CYO team started many future MHS players on their paths to success. One of our Hall of Fame members, “Pup” Daley, remembers playing on one of those early teams. The team was named the Mechanicville Blue Streaks, perhaps claiming that nickname before it became the Saratoga High School nickname. At the same time the CYO played their seasons, Nick was busy with his own business plans. After the end of World War II, Nick purchased a railroad car diner located on Depot Square at the intersection of Elizabeth and Davenport Streets. He quickly added a large addition to hold the restaurant seating and new kitchen of Tancredi’s Diner. The diner was open around the clock, catering to the many railroad workers and Mechanicville citizens. When Antonio Tancredi passed away in 1950, Nick became partners in running the grocery store with his brother-in-law Art Strianese, Arg’s husband. Soon a large addition was made to the front of the original Tancredi building. The mom-and-pop grocery store had now become a supermarket. Nick continued to oversee Tancredi’s Diner and to coach basketball. The last basketball coaching position Nick held was to be the Junior Varsity basketball coach at MHS. Here he was coaching the young men he had already fostered in CYO. This was the era of the Whiz Kids’ successful basketball teams. Nick was also Varsity Coach Bill Kalbaugh’s assistant in those early 1950’s when the Whiz Kids won the Class B Sectionals in both 1952 and 1953. The team suffered only one loss over those two seasons. Perhaps it was Nick’s connection with Father Autch which led to the Whiz Kids playing their home games not in the old Matchbox gym, (Gym C), but in the more spacious gym in St. Paul’s Elementary School. Now, what about that name Tancredi still existing? If you look above the Ugly Rooster Restaurant setting, you will see the Tancredi name still holding its place atop the original two-story brick building.