Throwback Thursday: Do You Remember...?

ENFIELD, CT — In this weekly series, Enfield Patch remembers a business or landmark in town that is no longer in existence.

Today we continue the new format of this column we recently instituted: old advertisements from local businesses in some 1970s and 1980s Enfield and Fermi high school yearbooks and early-1960s to mid-1980s telephone directories.

Today we feature an early 1980s Fermi yearbook ad for Eddie's Sporting Goods in the old Enfield Mall at 25 Hazard Avenue. At the time, the mall was an enclosed shopping center with interior business entrances, unlike the strip mall which currently exists there.

Eddie Lapponese opened Eddie's Sporting Goods in 1978, and for 16 years, he helped outfit Enfield's youth with their sporting needs.

His name is almost synonymous with Enfield sports. He was involved for many years with the Enfield Parents Sports Association, coaching girls softball, basketball and the Enfield Americans youth football team. He was a founding member of the Enfield Flag Football League, and served as its commissioner for six years. He also organized and ran the Brian Fisher Memorial Softball Tournaments for many years, which raised scholarship money for high school students.

Lapponese served on the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame board of directors for many years. In 1999, the Hall of Fame honored him for his years of dedication to Enfield athletics by presenting him the George Daly Special Recognition Award, given in memory of another original committee member.

He passed away unexpectedly in 2010, and the Hall of Fame paid tribute to him for his years of volunteering at the organization's annual golf tournament by naming the closest to the pin award after him.

In 2012, the large softball field on the east end of Brainerd Park was dedicated as the Eddie Lapponese Softball Field.

Enfield Patch invites readers to share their memories in the comments section below.

Do you have a photo of a former Enfield business or landmark? Email it to tim.jensen@patch.com and we’ll feature it in an upcoming column.