Los Alamos Historical Society Brings Pierotti's Clowns Legacy to LAHS Students

Representatives from the Los Alamos Historical Society brought seven decades of local sports history into Lori Thompson's Sports Literature class at Los Alamos High School on Saturday, presenting the story of Pierotti's Clowns, the five-man fast-pitch softball team founded in 1953 that the county's own proclamation language calls "The Goodwill Ambassadors of Los Alamos."

The visit centered on Lou Pierotti, the team's driving force, whose legacy has been commemorated in murals, museum exhibits, a county proclamation, and a posthumous induction into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame at a banquet held on August 20, 2022. The Council of the Incorporated County of Los Alamos honored him in formal proclamation language that reads: "Lou Pierotti's athleticism, humor, and generosity are forever etched into the hearts of the Los Alamos community members."

Peter Pierotti, accepting the county proclamation on behalf of the family, captured the mutual affection between Lou and his hometown. "With this proclamation you have helped preserve his legacy and on behalf of his family, I am proud to accept it," Peter Pierotti said. He noted that Lou loved Los Alamos, and Los Alamos returned that love by commissioning a mural outside the library and building a community display in the Municipal Building. The Los Alamos Historical Society also mounted museum exhibits about Lou at Fuller Lodge, and Lou himself donated Pierotti's Clowns memorabilia to the Historical Society for use as an exhibit in the Los Alamos Historical Museum.

The classroom presentation gave Thompson's students a window into the specific ways Lou wove himself into community life beyond the softball diamond. He regularly dressed in a complete Topper Football uniform, helmet and mask included, to raise money for Los Alamos High School, letting students and adults pay a small donation for the chance to guess the masked celebrity and win a grand prize. In 1983 he brought Touchdown Tony Hill of the NFL Dallas Cowboys to Los Alamos for a charity event. He never missed an invitation to throw out the first pitch on opening day of the little league season, and he eventually threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Triple A Albuquerque Isotopes game held in honor of the Pierotti's Clowns. Peter Pierotti also noted that Lou had been appointed to numerous boards and community organizations throughout his life.

The New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame recognized the scope of that contribution in language cited by the county proclamation: "The success and lasting honors of Lou Pierotti and his team members earned them the moniker of 'The Goodwill Ambassadors of Los Alamos.'" For students in Thompson's Sports Literature class, the visit translated that moniker from an abstract honor into a specific, decades-long record of a man and a five-man team who treated a small New Mexico county as both home field and civic responsibility.