Picture Enfield - Then And Now

ENFIELD, CT — Today's installment of this weekly Enfield history series, courtesy of the Enfield Historical Society, is a bit different than our normal offering of an old business and what its location looks like today. Instead, we'll reminisce about one of the town's most memorable "characters" - Don Kegler.

Anyone who attended a Fermi High School sporting event from the early 1970s through the beginning of the 1990s likely saw Mr. Kegler (no one called him Don), and you most definitely heard him. He was a good-sized gentleman with white hair who was of indeterminable age - we all figured he was somewhere between 60 and 200 years old. We knew he lived somewhere near the high school, but no one seemed to know exactly where.

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He had a fondness for the cheerleaders, often bringing them hand-crafted wooden necklaces and other trinkets, all adorned in the Fermi colors - blue, white and black. He was rarely seen without his trademark overcoat - whether it was eight degrees or 80, he would invariably be wearing that tan garment with the genuine simulated fur collar.

What distinguished Mr. Kegler from all other fans was his ... ummmm, how can I say this ... vocal enthusiasm in support of the Falcons. It didn't matter if the game was at the school field or the Enfield Twin Rinks; if you were within a mile of the place, you heard him. Not in a bad way, mind you, but with a fervor unmatched by anyone since.

His signature line, heard on multiple occasions during each contest, would put Michael Buffer to shame. "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Fermi, get 'em!" was inevitably followed by a cackling turkey call. At other times, he would punctuate the air with a spot-on Woody Woodpecker laugh; on his serious side, he never failed to beautifully sing along to the national anthem.

In 1989, the students and staff at Fermi presented Mr. Kegler with a personalized sweatshirt during a ceremony thanking him for his years of support; the photo accompanying this column is from that presentation, as published in the 1990 Fermi yearbook. Sadly, he did not get to enjoy it for very long, as he passed away on March 3, 1991.

In researching this information at 3 a.m., I finally found a few answers to the unknown questions surrounding Mr. Kegler. No obituary was published following his passing, but Leete-Stevens Funeral Home did list his date of birth - Nov. 20, 1918 - meaning he died at age 72. Digging through Enfield land records on the town's somewhat-less-than-user-friendly website, I discovered he owned a home at 8 Ridgefield Road in Hazardville, exactly a mile and a half from his beloved Fermi.

RIP Mr. Kegler; you were truly one of Enfield's most unforgettable characters.

Last week's trivia answer:
Last week's trivia question was, "What was the first athletic team from Enrico Fermi High School to finish as state runner-up?" The answer: the 1975 softball team, which in just the fourth year of the school's existence reached the Class L championship game, where it dropped a 3-1 decision to Staples High School of Westport. The team was inducted into the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.

This week's trivia question:
Anyone who ever made the 2 a.m. crawl to Denny's from the Pumpernickel Pub, the Dial Tone, Memories Cafe or the Leopard Lounge in the 1980s and 1990s surely encountered "Ma," who worked there for 21 years. What was her actual name? Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.