“My pitching coach texted me and said, ‘Are you related to Oak Melendy?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, he was my grandfather.’ He said, ‘Because we found a ball lying around with his name on it.’” Jackson Melendy ’26 says he never really knew Oakley Melendy, Class of 1939, “So it’s kind of cool to have the ball he played with.” Oakley, known as Oak, was a shortstop and outfielder who aided ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ to a state crown and went on to captain the team.
The ball was signed by several members of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾’s 1938 team, and a number of signatures are clearly visible on the faded leather item, including that of Melendy’s classmate and fellow Maine Sports Hall of Famer Nels Cory ’39, another of the College’s sporting legends who went on to be an esteemed coach. Also recognizable is the autograph of Andrew Haldane ’41, who was killed in action during the World War II and in whose name the College awards an annual leadership cup.
As a football player, Oak featured in three consecutive state championships, playing three different positions and marking the best four-year record for ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ in the twentieth century (20-5-3). Despite not having played hockey prior to coming to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, he skated with the Polar Bears to a pair of state championships and an All-New England honor in 1939.
Oak pretty much excelled at every sport he did, says Marko Melendy, who is ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾’s animal welfare and facilities manager. “People remember my dad as a gifted year-round athlete because he started on the baseball, basketball, hockey, football, and track teams.” During a baseball match, it was not unknown for his father to change kit between innings and run over to Whittier Field to go and throw javelin—another sport in which he was a state champion—before rejoining the ball game at the Pickard Field diamond. Oak was also a champion billiards player, adds Marko, and could sometimes be found in the pool halls of Lewiston and Auburn hustling some extra dollars on the side to help him through school.
As well as being an athlete, Oak was also class president and a chemistry major who went on to study medicine at Columbia University, serve as an army doctor during the war, and enjoy a long career as a surgeon.
