by Karen Sangillo
Marty Devlin, of West Trenton, is an athletic legend in Mercer County. And rightfully so. The 90-year-old was named in 1999 as one of Mercer County’s 15 best athletes of the century.
At age 15 he was a member of the Trenton Schroths baseball team that won the 1948 American Legion national championship. Marty was a standout at Trenton Central High School where he was an All-American diver, an all-city quarterback and an all-state baseball player.
After high school he went to Duke University, where he played baseball for one year before becoming academically ineligible. He signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952, playing in their minor league system until 1959 where he had the opportunity to play with baseball legends Sparky Anderson and Tommy Lasorda. He also played ball in the army and was a player-manager with the Orlando Dodgers when he was 26-years-old.
After leaving professional baseball, he went to Trenton State College in Ewing, now the College of New Jersey, where he earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in physical education. He worked for Rider University in Lawrence for 22 years, developing a nationally acclaimed intramural program.
A self-taught tennis player, he took up the sport at age 36 and earned a world senior ranking. He has also worked for Prince Manufacturing as a tennis clinician, and he taught and coached tennis as well as other sports.
He has a tennis court at his house, and he still gives tennis lessons to a group of women. Although he has COPD and has slowed down, he still gets a workout in every day by playing golf, swimming and walking.
And this active life prompted Marty to write a book, a memoir entitled “Ol’ Buddy Marty: With Average Ability and Supreme Effort, All Things are Possible,” in which he shares his story with humor and insight, describing how he overcame challenges and applied life principles that can benefit anyone.
The book is chock-full of photos and anecdotes. It is indeed, as the cover advertises, a memoir sprinkled with wit, wisdom and inspiration.
Even the foreward, written by Pennsbury High School graduate, former professional tennis player, current president of the International Tennis Federation and current member of the International Olympic Committee Dave Haggerty, is full of life stories and entertainment as much as wisdom.
It also includes helpful worksheets for use in positive change, an interesting novelty for a memoir, but one that goes far to assist the reader in gaining as much insight as possible. He shares the principles he has developed to become a motivational speaker.
“When I think of where I came from, I went from one extreme to another,” he said. “I hated school and had no skills, yet I actually wrote a book. That is more gratifying than anything else I’ve accomplished.”
The book took him nine years to write, beginning longhand before getting assistance from former Trenton Times tennis columnist Ann LoPrinzi. Ann suggested getting a professional editor and Cathy Kreyche joined the team.
“I’m getting so many positive and heartwarming responses from readers,” he said.
“One in particular was from the brother of a girl I taught to swim. Her brain was damaged at birth. She couldn’t move her arms and legs, had to be patterned, and was embarrassed to perform in front of people – but that all changed.
“I had a real rapport with her and, apparently, I changed her life, and her family is so grateful to me. She went on to compete at Special Olympics, and swimming gave her life some normalcy. This was also a highlight for me. Stories like that make it all worthwhile.”
The book is available on Marty’s website, martydevlin.com or on Amazon.
PHOTO CAP: Marty Devlin