You first saw him one winter long ago on the first page of a Boston tabloid. Boston College was playing Holy Cross in a basketball final in the historic Garden. A player had been fouled and the referee was calling it, right hand across his arm in a chopping motion. The referee was John Fortunato.

The next time you saw him, he was an umpire in the Halifax and District Baseball League and by his personality and competence adding immeasurably to the popularity of a league that would become the finest in the history of baseball in the Maritime Provinces.

League president Harry Butler had brought the “Fotch” from Lewiston, Maine, in 1947. Fortunato, who was already established as a referee in basketball, and far more interested in sports than he was in law class in Boston College, was making a name for himself in professional baseball leagues in New England.

By 1948, he was moving steadily towards his goal — an umpire in the major leagues, preferably the American League, the home of the Boston Red Sox.

In Nova Scotia, he made umpiring popular. The fans loved him. He exuded charm, quipped with the players and the crowd, kidded with the sports writers, always with a wide, infectious grin. He was always good for a quote, some of which for all their appeal, were simply not printable. The “Fotch” was a character. You thought of Damon Runyon and Ring Lardner and even Red Smith. They had written about some of the game’s extroverts who might have been models for Fortunato.

He had fond memories of his long career in Nova Scotia as an official in baseball and basketball. He could never forget the tremendous reception the huge crowd gave him at the Wanderers Grounds in 1949 when he walked out to the diamond to handle the famous game between the Capitals of the H-D League and the amateur champions of the United States, Equitable Life. The Capitals won that game 7-6 in ten innings.

The league was a hunting ground for major league scouts. Among them Neil Mahoney of the Red Sox, Harry Hesse of the Yankees, Freddie Maguire, another Boston scout, Benny Borgmann, St. Louis Cardinals, Okie O’Connor and Whitey Piurek, Brooklyn Dodgers, Jeff Jones, Boston Braves. The “Fotch” knew most of them through his association with the leagues they had scouted in the United States.

He kept tabs on the players who had gone to the majors. Among his favorites were Dick Gernert who went to the Red Sox, Zeke Bella and Tommy Carroll to the Yankees, Al Spangler to the Cubs, Dave Stenhouse, Washington Senators and Moe Drabowsky, Chicago Cubs.

In his high school days, Johnny Fortunato had been a catcher, as had his old friend and competitor, Neil Mahoney. The “Fotch” was not a native of Lewiston, Me., where he lived for many years, but of Boston-South Boston, that is. He was always ready then to sing the raucous, ribald, rowdy rallying song of its loyal, fiercely independent citizens “Southie is my home town…

As a schoolboy, the “Fotch” was so outstanding in baseball, football and baseball, he won the Cardinal O’Connell Scholarship to Boston College. Years later, Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston was conducting a high mass at St. Mary’s Basilica. Among the hundreds outside the Basilica was Fortunato. His Eminence saw his old pupil in the crowd at the steps of the Basilica and said “Johnny Fortunato, what are you doing in Halifax?”

Johnny Fortunato also had a remarkable career in Nova Scotia as a basketball referee. His experience, his colorful but always dominating control of the play were major factors in the great rise in popularity of the game in Nova Scotia.

You remember many things about Johnny Fortunato. You know that the highest praise he had for a friend or even a boo-bird in the bleacher whom he respected, was “He’s a bum… with a touch of class.”

Appropriately, at the funeral mass for Johnny Fortunato at St. Theresa’s Church last year, organist Frankie Arab, an old friend, played softly “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” The “Fotch” would have loved it.

Bio Courtesy of Alex Nickerson