Neil T. Mahoney was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 professional baseball

Professional baseball

Baseball is a team sport which is played by several professional leagues throughout the world. In these leagues, and associated farm teams, players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system....

 scout, scouting director, and player development official. Mahoney spent more than 30 years with the Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...

 of Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

, and as director of minor league

Minor league baseball

Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

 operations and director of player procurement, he played an instrumental role in Boston's 1967

1967 Boston Red Sox season

The Boston Red Sox season, often referred to as The Impossible Dream, consisted of the Red Sox shocking New England and the rest of the baseball world by winning the American League Championship and reaching the World Series for the first time since 1946...

 and 1975

1975 Boston Red Sox season

The Boston Red Sox season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Red Sox finishing first in the American League East with a record of 95 wins and 65 losses...

 American League

American League

The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...

 championships.

Mahoney graduated with a business degree from Northeastern University in 1929, then played semi-professional baseball in New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, and one professional season (1934) as a catcher for the Watertown Townies and the Lowell Hustlers of the Class B Northeastern League

New England League

The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played sporadically in five of the six New England states between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League Baseball clubs in Boston and alongside stronger, higher-classification...

. He first joined the Red Sox as an area scout in 1939, but during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he became head baseball and basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 coach of Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...

. After the war, he rejoined the Red Sox and during the 1950s was promoted to East Coast scouting supervisor. He signed New England players such as Jimmy Piersall

Jimmy Piersall

James Anthony Piersall is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball. Between 1950 and 1967, he played for the Boston Red Sox , Cleveland Indians , Washington Senators , New York Mets , and Los Angeles/California Angels .While he had a fairly good professional career as a center...

, Walt Dropo

Walt Dropo

Walter Dropo , nicknamed "Moose", was an American college basketball standout and a professional baseball first baseman...

 and Wilbur Wood

Wilbur Wood

Wilbur Forrester Wood, Jr. is a former knuckleball pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, and most notably the Chicago White Sox, where he got 163 of his 164 wins...

 for Boston. He also signed University of Florida

University of Florida

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...

 catcher Haywood Sullivan

Haywood Sullivan

Haywood Cooper Sullivan was an American college and professional baseball player who was a catcher, manager, general manager and club owner in Major League Baseball...

, who would succeed Mahoney as the Red Sox' scouting director in 1973 and later become general manager

General manager (baseball)

In Major League Baseball, the general manager of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the ballclub during contract discussions with players....

 and part-owner of the Bosox.

After a disappointing 1960 season

1960 Boston Red Sox season

The 1960 Boston Red Sox season involved the Red Sox finishing 7th in the American League with a record of 65 wins and 89 losses, 32 games behind the New York Yankees.- Regular season :...

, Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey

Tom Yawkey

Thomas Austin Yawkey, born Thomas Austin , was an American industrialist and Major League Baseball executive. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Yawkey became president of the Boston Red Sox in 1933, and was the sole owner of the team for 44 seasons, longer than anyone else in baseball history.-Early...

 made several changes in his front office. Among them, he replaced Johnny Murphy

Johnny Murphy

John Joseph Murphy was an All-Star American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who later became a front office executive in the game.-Formative relief pitcher:...

, the team's director of minor league operations and scouting, with Mahoney. Although the Red Sox continued to struggle at the MLB level through 1966, Mahoney's scouts and minor league farm system began producing players who would assume key roles in its 1967 "Impossible Dream" pennant drive: Jim Lonborg

Jim Lonborg

James Reynold Lonborg is a former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher who played with the Boston Red Sox , Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies...

, George Scott, Rico Petrocelli

Rico Petrocelli

Americo Peter "Rico" Petrocelli is an American retired baseball shortstop and third baseman who played his entire career in the American League with the Boston Red Sox...

, Tony Conigliaro

Tony Conigliaro

Anthony Richard Conigliaro , nicknamed "Tony C" and "Conig", was a Major League Baseball outfielder and right-handed batter who played for the Boston Red Sox and California Angels . He was born in Revere, Massachusetts, and was a 1962 graduate of St. Mary's High School...

, Reggie Smith

Reggie Smith

Carl Reginald Smith is a former Major League Baseball outfielder, coach and front office executive. During a 17-year big league career , Smith appeared in 1,987 games, hit 314 home runs and batted .287. He was a switch-hitter who threw right-handed. In his prime, he had one of the strongest...

, Joe Foy

Joe Foy

Joseph Anthony "Joe" Foy was a Major League Baseball third baseman.-Boston Red Sox:Born in New York City, Foy was signed as an amateur free agent by the Minnesota Twins in 1962, but was selected in that year's minor league draft by the Boston Red Sox...

 and others. In addition, the system produced a future Baseball Hall of Fame manager

Manager (baseball)

In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...

, Dick Williams

Dick Williams

Richard Hirschfeld "Dick" Williams was an American left fielder, third baseman, manager, coach and front office consultant in Major League Baseball. Known especially as a hard-driving, sharp-tongued manager from 1967–69 and 1971–88, he led teams to three American League pennants, one National...

, who would lead Boston to the 1967 pennant; Williams had been given his first managing job, the Red Sox' Triple-A assignment, by Mahoney in 1965.

Mahoney, like general manager Dick O'Connell

Dick O'Connell

Richard Henry O'Connell was an American front office executive in Major League Baseball. He was executive vice president of the Boston Red Sox from 1961 through 1977 and served as general manager of the team from September 16, 1965, through October 24, 1977, a period during which he played a...

, also signaled a change in Red Sox policy by actively scouting and signing African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 players. "Under O'Connell and Neil Mahoney, Boston's increasingly colorblind farm system had never been more productive," wrote Glenn Stout and Dick Johnson in their book, Red Sox Century.

After the 1968 season, Mahoney focused strictly on heading the team's scouting corps, turning over farm system director responsibilities to his assistant, Ed Kenney

Edward F. Kenney, Sr.

Edward F. Kenney, Sr. was an American executive and in professional baseball.A native of Massachusetts, Kenney was born in Medford and raised in Winchester where he captained the high school baseball team. He later spent three years as the starting shortstop for the Boston College, where he...

. Before his death at age 66 in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of...

 in 1973, however, Mahoney's scouts would produce Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk

Carlton Fisk

Carlton Ernest Fisk , nicknamed "Pudge" or "The Commander", is a former Major League Baseball catcher. During a 24-year baseball career, he played for both the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox .Fisk was known by the nickname "Pudge" due to his 6'2", 220 lb frame...

 and Jim Rice

Jim Rice

James Edward "Jim" Rice , nicknamed "Jim Ed", is a former Major League Baseball left fielder.Jim Rice played his entire career for the Boston Red Sox from 1974 to 1989...

, and other stars of Boston's 1975 pennant-winning team such as Rick Burleson

Rick Burleson

Richard Paul Burleson is a former Major League Baseball shortstop. "Rooster," as he was nicknamed was a famously intense ballplayer...

, Dwight Evans

Dwight Evans

Dwight Michael Evans , nicknamed "Dewey", is an American former professional baseball right fielder and right-handed batter who played with the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles in Major League Baseball....

 and Bill Lee

Bill Lee (left-handed pitcher)

William Francis Lee III , nicknamed "Spaceman", is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played for the Boston Red Sox from - and the Montreal Expos from -...

.

A former baseball captain of the Northeastern Huskies

Northeastern Huskies

The Northeastern University Huskies are the athletic teams representing Northeastern University. They compete in thirteen varsity team sports: men's and women's hockey ; men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's field hockey and volleyball, swimming, and men's and women's soccer , and...

, Neil Mahoney was inducted posthumously into the Northeastern University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1975.